.    \  - 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER 
AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 


JAMES   K.   McGUIRE 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER 
AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 


BY 
JAMES  K.  McGUffiE 


NEW  YORK 
THE  DEVIN-ADAIR  COMPANY 

437  FIFTH  AVENUE 


COPT  RIGHT,    1915,    BT 

THE  DEVIN-ADAIR  COMPANY 


THIS  BOOK  Is  DEDICATED 

to  the  millions  of  men  and  women  of  German  blood 
in  this  country — who  form  the  bulwarks  of  American 
civilization — to  Johannes  DeKalb  and  Steuben,  the 
heroic  and  efficient  soldiers  and  advisers  of  George 
Washington — to  the  memory  of  Germans  who  fought 
with  Andrew  Jackson  against  England  in  the  War  of 
1812 — to  the  German-American  heroes  of  1848 — to 
the  great  numbers  of  Germans  who  fought  for  the 
freedom  of  men  and  the  preservation  of  the  American 
Union  in  the  Civil  War  from  1861  to  the  year  1865 — 
to  their  children  in  the  Spanish-American  War  of 
1898 — to  all  the  vast  Teutonic  elements  of  the  United 
States  whose  efforts  have  placed  our  nation  to  the 
forefront  in  education  and  in  all  arts  and  sciences — 
a  noble  people  from  whom  Americans  learn  to  be  effi- 
cient and  thorough — to  the  thrifty,  useful,  industri- 
ous, patriotic  children  of  the  Fatherland. 

JAMES  K.  McGuiRE. 
NEW  YORK,  March  4, 1915,  the  anniversary  of  Robert  Emmet 


[5] 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  is  made  necessary  by  the  studied  viola- 
tions of  neutrality  on  the  part  of  certain  Anglo-Amer- 
ican newspapers,  by  the  misrepresentation  of  the  true 
spirit  of  Irish  nationality  at  home  and  abroad,  by  the 
vilification  of  Germany,  the  infamous  distortion  of 
the  truth  by  various  writers  and,  above  all,  by  the 
growing  probability  that  this  section  of  unfair  Amer- 
ica, by  no  means  in  a  majority,  will  destroy  all  hope 
of  the  United  States  becoming  the  arbiter  at  the  end 
of  the  European  war.  The  German  people  must  un- 
derstand that  the  Anglo-American  newspaper  is  with- 
out real  influence  among  the  people  and  that  in  this 
war  it  does  not  represent  the  true  state  of  public  opin- 
ion. 

The  Cologne  Gazette,  perhaps  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant newspapers  in  Germany,  declares  that  the  atro- 
cious falsehoods  of  the  American  press  render  impos- 
sible all  hope  of  American  intervention  for  peace  and 
destroys  all  possibility  of  America  having  part  in  the 
settlement  after  the  war,  thus  relegating  our  country 
to  a  most  inferior  position.  We  are  regarded  as  a 
vassal  of  England  and  have  lost  our  influence  as  a 
neutral  state.  Bishop  Von  Keppler,  of  Bavaria,  the 
most  eminent  Catholic  prelate  of  Germany,  is  quoted 
[7] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

as  confirming  the  view  of  the  Cologne  Gazette,  which 
adds: 

"American  neutrality  has  been  favorable  to  Great 
Britain,  and  America  has  lost  our  confidence  and  must 
be  rejected  as  an  arbitrator." 

JAMES  K.  McGuiRE. 

NEW  YORK,  March,  1915. 


[8] 


ENDORSEMENT 

JAMES  K.  McGuiRE  is  peculiarly  fitted  and  especially 
endowed  to  write  a  book  friendly  to  Germany.  The 
first  education  he  received  in  Syracuse  was  in  a  Ger- 
man school  and  his  next  schooling  took  place  in  the 
German  school  then  in  the  basement  of  the  Lutheran 
church  in  Butternut  Street,  Syracuse,  New  York.  It 
is  thirteen  years  since  Mr.  McGuire  left  Syracuse. 
During  the  thirty  years  he  lived  in  our  midst,  no  man 
occupied  a  warmer  place  in  the  hearts  and  affections 
of  the  German  people.  Long  time  Mayor  of  Syra- 
cuse, he  always  held  the  support  of  the  German  peo- 
ple, irrespective  of  party  ties.  It  is  perfectly  natural 
for  him  to  defend  German  ideals  and  causes,  for  he  is 
a  student  and  writer  on  German  history,  philosophy 
and  poetry,  as  well  as  a  firm  friend  and  son  of  Ire- 
land with  an  international  reputation. 

(Signed)     ALEX.  E.  OBERLANDER. 
Editor  and  Publisher  of  the  Deutche  Union, 

Syracuse,  New  York. 


[9] 


CONTENTS 

HAPTER  PAGE 

I.  SIR  ROGER  CASEMENT'S  MISSION  TO  GER- 
MANY       15 

II.  EMPEROR  WILLIAM  OF  GERMANY    .      .     29 

III.  ENGLAND  LENGTHENING  THE  AMERICAN 

BREAD  LINE 33 

IV.  ALSACE 46 

V.  GERMANS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  .      .     51 

VI.  WHY   ENGLAND   WILL   NEVER   GRANT 

FREEDOM  TO  IRELAND 58 

VII.  WHAT  GERMANY  COULD  Do  FOR  IRE- 
LAND        68 

VIII.  How  ENGLAND  DESTROYED  IRISH   IN- 
DUSTRIES        78 

IX.  IRELAND'S  COMMERCE 82 

X.  ENGLISH  ATROCITIES  IN  IRELAND  .      .  97 

XI.  THE  IRISH  HOME  RULE  BILL  .      .      .  in 

XII.  OUR  INTERFERENCE  IN  IRELAND     .      .  126 

XIII.  ENGLISH      SOCIETY      TEMPTS      IRISH 

LEADERS 135 

XIV.  FOMENTING  RELIGIOUS  PREJUDICES      .    145 

XV.  RECRUITING  THE  IRISH  NATIONAL  VOL- 
UNTEERS        156 

[ii] 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

XVI.  THE  WOMEN  OF  IRELAND    .     .     .     .172 

XVII.  LEADERS  OF  IRELAND 177 

XVIII.  YOUNG  IRELAND  OF  1848     .     .     .     .183 

XIX.  THE  UPRISING  OF  1865 198 

XX.  THE  SITUATION  IN  IRELAND      .      .      .  205 

XXI.  How  ENGLAND  SERVES  UP  THE  NEWS 

FOR  THE  WORLD 219 

XXII.  NEW  YORK  PUBLIC  OPINION     .     .  .  230 

XXIII.  IRISH  OPINION  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA  .  .  240 

XXIV.  IRISH  FEELING  FAVORS  GERMANY  .  .  257 
XXV.  A  WORD  FOR  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY    .  .271 

XXVI.  CONCLUSION 275 

POSTSCRIPT 287 


[12] 


ILLUSTRATIONS 
JAMES  K.  McGuiRE Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGB 

EMPEROR  WILLIAM  OF  GERMANY 29 

ROBERT   EMMET 58 

SARAH  CURRAN 172 

THEOBOLD  WOLFE  TONE 177 

DANIEL  O'CONNELL 183 

JOHN  MITCHEL 197 

MICHAEL  DAVITT 254 

CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL  .     .     .     ...     .     .  270 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND 
IRISH  FREEDOM 

CHAPTER  I 
SIR  ROGER  CASEMENT'S  MISSION  TO  GERMANY 

THE  visit  of  Sir  Roger  Casement  to  the  German 
foreign  office  at  Berlin  last  November  created 
considerable  interest  in  America  and  no  little  con- 
sternation in  England.  Sir  Roger  Casement  rep- 
resented the  real  Nationalists  in  his  visit  and  was 
selected  by  them  as  ambassador  because  he  was 
known  as  a  tried  friend  of  the  movement  for  the 
independence  of  Ireland. 

The  first  newspaper  to  announce  the  result  of 
his  mission  was  the  official  organ  of  the  German 
foreign  office,  the  Norddeutsche  Allgemeine 
Zeitung,  which,  on  November  20,  1914,  made  the 
following  announcement : 

The  well-known  Irish  Nationalist,  Sir  Roger  Case- 
ment, who  recently  arrived  in  Berlin  from  the  United 
States,  was  received  at  the  Foreign  Office.  Sir  Roger 
Casement  pointed  out  that  there  had  been  circulated  in 
Ireland  statements,  apparently  authorized  by  the  Brit- 
ish Government,  to  the  effect  that  a  German  victory 
would  inflict  great  injury  upon  the  Irish  people.  Their 
[15] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

land,  their  habitations,  their  churches,  and  their  priests 
would  be  handed  over  to  the  tender  mercies  of  an  army 
of  invaders,  whose  only  motives  were  plunder  and  con- 
quest. Recent  assertions  of  Mr.  Redmond  on  the  occa- 
sion of  his  recruiting  tour  through  Ireland,  as  well  as 
manifold  editorial  statement  of  the  British  press  in 
Ireland,  had,  so  Sir  Roger  explained,  been  widely  cir- 
culated, and  had  naturally  occasioned  among  the  Irish 
fears  respecting  the  attitude  of  Germany  toward  Ire- 
land. In  the  event  of  a  German  victory,  Sir  Roger 
asked  for  a  convincing  declaration  about  Germany's 
intentions  toward  Ireland,  such  as  might  restore  the 
equanimity  of  his  fellow-countrymen  throughout  the 
world,  but  especially  in  Ireland  and  America,  in  view 
of  the  disturbing  statements  circulated  from  respon- 
sible British  quarters.  The  Acting  Secretary  of  State 
for  Foreign  Affairs  thereupon  made  the  following  offi- 
cial statement  on  behalf  of  the  Imperial  Chancellor : 

"The  Imperial  Government  rejects  with  the  utmost 
decision  the  evil  intentions  ascribed  to  it  in  the  asser- 
tions quoted  by  Sir  Roger  Casement.  The  govern- 
ment takes  this  opportunity  of  making  the  categorical 
assurance  that  Germany  cherishes  only  sentiments  of 
good  will  for  the  prosperity  of  the  Irish  people,  their 
land,  and  their  institutions.  The  Imperial  Govern- 
ment declares  formally  that  Germany  would  not  invade 
Ireland  with  any  intentions  of  conquest  or  of  the  de- 
struction of  any  institutions.  If,  in  the  course  of  this 
war,  which  Germany  did  not  seek,  the  fortune  of  arms 
should  ever  bring  German  troops  to  the  coasts  of  Ire- 
[16] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

land,  they  would  land  there,  not  as  an  army  of  invad- 
ers coming  to  rob  or  destroy,  but  as  the  fighting  forces 
of  a  government  inspired  only  by  good  will  toward  a 
land  and  a  people  for  whom  Germany  only  wishes  na- 
tional prosperity  and  national  freedom." 

The  above  statement  was  officially  confirmed 
by  the  German  Chancellor  at  Berlin,  the  German 
Foreign  Office,  and  it  was  sent  out  officially  by 
wireless  from  Berlin  to  London  and  America,  via 
wireless  to  Sayville,  Long  Island,  which  is  the  only 
means  of  direct  communication  between  Germany 
and  the  United  States,  since  England  cut  the 
cables.  Of  course,  very  little  news  of  this  im- 
portant declaration  reached  the  country  so  seri- 
ously affected  by  it — deceived  Ireland.  Since  the 
declaration  of  war  by  England  against  Germany, 
the  Irish  have  been  daily  frightened  into  the  be- 
lief that  a  German  invasion  would  mean  wreak- 
ing frightful  atrocities  on  helpless  women  and 
children,  the  destruction  of  their  homes  and 
properties,  and  such  cruelties  as,  they  were  fooled 
into  believing,  occurred  hourly  in  Belgium.  The 
bogies  and  the  conjuring  of  the  "German  acts 
of  barbarism"  by  Redmond,  Devlin  and  O'Con- 
nor were  the  principal  bits  of  stage  property  they 
had  been  using  to  secure  recruits  for  the  British 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

army.  To  lose  this  precious  and  essential  bit  of 
scenery  would  destroy  the  great  act  in  the  recruit- 
ing drama.  In  America  the  declaration  ended 
the  last  hopes  of  Redmond's  following,  the  rem- 
nants of  the  United  Irish  League  vanished  into 
thin  air,  the  proposed  meetings  were  called  off 
and  a  feeling  of  solidarity  among  Irish  National- 
ists was  created.  Redmond  stood  aghast  over 
this  news,  which,  despite  press  censors,  was  filter- 
ing through,  penetrating  parts  of  Ireland  and  in- 
terfering with  the  recruiting  programme.  A  few 
days  of  silence  passed,  when  the  London  cables 
informed  the  Anglo-American  press  that  poor 
Casement  was  insane  and  had  been  suffering 
from  ill  health,  that  he  had  been  long  a  loyal  son 
of  Great  Britain  and  was  deserving  of  the  great- 
est pity  for  his  derangement.  Observing  Ameri- 
cans replied  that  while,  possibly,  Sir  Roger 
Casement  might  have,  according  to  English  re- 
ports, a  few  "bats  in  his  belfry,"  that  there  was 
no  question  about  the  brainy  headpiece  of  the 
German  Government  and  that  "national  freedom" 
for  Ireland,  with  the  aid  of  Germany,  was  no 
evidence  of  brainstorm.  The  evident  plight  of 
the  English  Government  was  pitiful  while  the 
real  Irish  Nationalists  rejoiced. 
[18] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

The  writer  has  been  at  some  pains  in  investi- 
gating the  record  of  Sir  Roger  Casement.  His 
career  is  one  of  which  any  man  might  well  feel 
proud.  He  is  fifty  years  of  age,  born  in  County 
Antrim,  near  Belfast,  an  Ulster  Protestant  and 
a  staunch  friend  and  supporter  of  Irish  inde- 
pendence. He  has  held  important  positions  in  the 
British  foreign  service  without  a  blemish  on  his 
private  or  official  record. 

In  1895  he  was  British  Consul,  for  West  Africa 
and  Consul  to  the  Congo  Free  State,  which  posi- 
tion he  occupied  for  eleven  years.  He  was  sent 
to  Brazil  in  1906,  declined  the  consul  general- 
ship of  the  West  Indies  in  1907  and  was  made 
consul  general  for  Brazil  in  1909. 

His  diplomatic  ability  and  commercial  speciali- 
zation are  of  the  highest  order  and  he  would  have 
been  elevated  to  the  chief  diplomatic  posts  but 
for  his  well-known  view  that  his  own  country, 
Ireland,  could  only  work  out  her  destiny  by  sep- 
aration from  England.  This  was  the  same  view 
held  by  the  rebel  of  1848,  Sir  Charles  Gavan 
Duffy,  who  rose  to  the  position  of  Premier  of 
Australia  and  who,  to  the  day  of  his  death,  hoped 
to  see  the  green  flag  flying  over  a  free  Ireland. 
Six  weeks  after  the  war  broke  out,  Sir  Roger 
[19] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Casement  sent  this  letter  to  the  Irish  newspapers : 

Let  Irishmen  and  boys  stay  in  Ireland.  Their  duty 
is  clear — before  God  and  before  man.  We,  as  a  peo- 
ple, have  no  quarrel  with  the  German  people.  Ger- 
many has  never  wronged  Ireland,  and  we  owe  her 
more  than  one  debt  of  gratitude.  It  was  not  a  Ger- 
man steamship  company  that,  last  summer,  with  the 
assent  of  the  government  making  the  contract,  broke 
public  faith  with  the  Irish  people  and  abandoned  its 
pledged  service  with  the  port  of  Cork.  But  it  was  a 
German  steamship  company  that  tried  to  make  good 
the  breach  of  public  trust  and  the  injury  to  Irish  trade 
that  the  Cunard  Company  had  committed,  and  the 
British  Postmaster-General,  Admiralty,  and  Board  of 
Trade  had  connived  at.  And  it  was  another  British 
department  that  made  representation  at  Berlin,  in  be- 
half of  English  trade  jealousy,  and  caused  the  German 
Emperor  to  intervene  to  induce  the  Hamburg-Ameri- 
can line  to  substitute  Southampton  for  Queenstown — 
a  British  for  an  Irish  port.  The  hated  German  was 
welcome  when  he  came  to  an  English  port — his  help 
and  enterprise  were  out  of  place  when  directed  to  as- 
sisting Irishmen  to  better  means  of  intercourse  with 
the  outside  world. 

Sir  Roger  Casement  is  an  Irishman  of  the  pur- 
est patriotic  gold.    We  take  no  pride  in  the  con- 
stant allusions  by  England  to  her  great  military 
and  naval  commanders  who  are  born  in  Ireland. 
[20] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

They  are  Tories  and  are  opposed  to  the  freedom 
of  their  own  country.  No  patriotic  Irishman  re- 
joices in  Lord  Kitchener,  Lord  Roberts,  Rear 
Admiral  Callaghan  or  in  the  military  genius  of 
the  Duke  of  Wellington.  These  men  fought  for 
England  alone  and  never  for  Ireland.  They 
were  given  their  reward  by  England  and  no 
shrine  is  visited  in  Ireland  which  venerates  their 
names.  In  bitterness  of  feeling  toward  National- 
ist Ireland,  these  Irish  saviours  of  England  have 
outdone  the  descendants  of  Cromwell.  It  is  not 
so  with  the  able  Irishman  whose  name  heads  this 
chapter,  Roger  Casement. 

PROPHETIC 

Extracts  from  the  writings  of  Sir  Roger  Case- 
ment and  written  before  the  war: 

Without  Ireland  there  would  be  to-day  no  British 
Empire.  The  vital  importance  of  Ireland  to  England 
is  understood,  but  never  proclaimed  by  any  British 
statesman.  To  subdue  that  western  and  ocean-closing 
island  and  to  exploit  its  resources,  its  people  and, 
above  all,  its  position,  to  the  sole  advantage  of  the 
eastern  island,  has  been  the  set  aim  of  every  English 
government  from  the  days  of  Henry  VIII  onwards. 
***** 

Napoleon,  too  late  in  St.  Helena,  realized  his  error : 

[21] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

"Had  I  gone  to  Ireland  instead  of  to  Egypt  the  empire 
of  England  was  at  an  end." 

*  *  *  *  * 

The  power  of  the  British  fleet  can  never  be  perma- 
nently restrained  until  Ireland  is  restored  to  Europe. 
Germany  has  of  necessity  become  the  champion  of 
European  interests  as  opposed  to  the  world  dominion 
of  England  and  English-speaking  elements.  She  is  to- 
day a  dam,  a  great  reservoir  rapidly  filling  with  human 
life  that  must  some  day  find  an  outlet.  England  in- 
stead of  wisely  digging  channels  for  the  overflow  has 
hardened  her  heart,  like  Pharaoh,  and  thinks  to  pre- 
vent it  or  to  so  divert  the  stream  that  it  shall  be  lost 
and  drunk  up  in  the  thirsty  sands  of  an  ever  expand- 
ing Anglo-Saxondom.  German  laws,  German  lan- 
guage, German  civilization,  are  to  find  no  ground  for 
replenishing,  no  soil  to  fertilize  and  make  rich. 

*  *  *  *  * 

England  relies  on  money.  Germany  on  men.  And 
just  as  Roman  men  beat  Carthaginian  mercenaries,  so 
must  German  manhood,  in  the  end,  triumph  over  Brit- 
ish finance.  Just  as  Carthage  in  the  hours  of  final 
shock,  placing  her  gold  where  Romans  put  their  gods, 
and  never  with  a  soul  above  her  ships,  fell  before  the 
people  of  United  Italy,  so  shall  the  mightier  Carthage 
of  the  North  Seas,  in  spite  of  trade,  shipping,  colonies, 
the  power  of  the  purse  and  the  hired  valor  of  the 
foreign  (Irish,  Indian,  African),  go  down  before  the 
men  of  United  Germany. 

*  *  *  *  * 

[22] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

In  order  to  make  sure  the  encompassing  of  Europe 
with  a  girdle  of  steel  it  is  necessary  to  circle  the 
United  States  with  a  girdle  of  lies.  With  America 
true  to  the  policy  of  her  great  founder,  an  America 
"the  friend  of  all  Powers  but  the  ally  of  none,"  Eng- 
lish designs  against  European  civilization  must  in 
the  end  fall.  Those  plans  can  succeed  only  by 
active  American  support,  and  to  secure  this  is  now 
the  supreme  task  and  aim  of  British  stealth  and 
skill.  Every  tool  of  her  diplomacy,  polished  and  un- 
polished, from  the  trained  envoy  to  the  boy  scout  and 
the  minor  poet,  has  been  tried  in  turn.  The  pulpit, 
the  bar,  the  press,  the  society  hostess,  the  Cabinet 
Minister  and  the  Cabinet  Minister's  wife,  the  ex- 
Cabinet  Minister  and  the  royal  family  itself,  and  last, 
but  not  least,  even  "Irish  Nationality" — all  have  been 
pilgrims  to  that  shrine,  and  each  has  been  carefully 
primed,  loaded,  well-aimed,  and  then  turned  full  on 
the  weak  spots  in  the  armor  of  republican  simplicity. 
To  the  success  of  these  resources  of  panic  the  falsifica- 
tion of  history  becomes  essential  and  the  vilification 
of  the  most  peace-loving  people  of  Europe.  The  past 
relations  of  England  with  the  United  States  are  to  be 
blotted  out,  and  the  American  people,  who  are  by  blood 
so  largely  Germanic,  are  to  be  entrapped  into  an  atti- 
tude of  suspicion,  hostility,  and  resentment  against  the 
country  and  race  from  whom  they  have  received  noth- 
ing but  good.  Germany  is  represented  as  the  enemy, 
not  to  England's  indefensible  claim  to  own  the  seas, 
but  to  American  ideals  on  the  American  Continent. 

[23] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Just  as  the  Teuton  has  become  the  "Enemy  of  Civiliza- 
tion" in  the  Old  World  because  he  alone  has  power, 
strength  of  mind,  and  force  of  purpose  to  seriously 
dispute  the  British  hegemony  of  the  seas,  so  he  is  as- 
siduously represented  as  the  only  threat  to  American 
hegemony  of  the  New  World. 


The  birds  of  the  forest  are  on  the  wing. 

It  is  an  empire  in  these  straits  that  turns  to  Amer- 
ica, through  Ireland,  to  save  it.  And  the  price  it  of- 
fers is — war  with  Germany.  France  may  serve  for 
a  time;  but  France,  like  Germany,  is  in  Europe,  and 
in  the  end  it  is  all  Europe  and  not  only  Germany  Eng- 
land assails.  Permanent  confinement  of  the  white 
races,  as  distinct  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  variety,  can 
only  be  achieved  by  the  active  support  and  close  al- 
liance of  the  American  people.  These  people  are  to- 
day, unhappily,  republicans  and  freemen,  and  have  no 
ill-will  for  Germany  and  a  positive  distaste  for  im- 
perialism. It  is  not  really  in  their  blood.  That  blood 
is  mainly  Irish  and  German,  the  blood  of  men  not 
distinguished  in  the  past  for  successful  piracy  and 
addicted  rather  to  the  ways  of  peace.  The  wars  that 
Germany  has  waged  have  been  wars  of  defence,  or 
wars  to  accomplish  the  unity  of  her  people.  Irish 
wars  have  been  only  against  one  enemy,  and  ending 
always  in  material  disaster,  they  have  conferred  always 
a  moral  gain.  Their  memory  uplifts  the  Irish  heart; 
for  no  nation,  no  people,  can  reproach  Ireland  with 
having  wronged  them.  She  has  injured  no  man. 
[24] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

And  now,  to-day,  it  is  the  great  free  race  of  this 
common  origin  of  peace-loving  peoples,  filling  another 
continent,  that  is  being  appealed  to  by  every  agency 
of  crafty  diplomacy,  in  every  garb  but  that  of  truth, 
to  aid  the  enemy  of  both  and  the  arch-disturber  of 
the  Old  World.  The  jailer  of  Ireland  seeks  Irish- 
American  support  to  keep  Ireland  in  prison;  the  in- 
triguer against  Germany  would  win  German-Ameri- 
can good-will  against  its  parent  stock.  There  can  be 
no  peace  for  mankind,  no  limit  to  the  intrigues  set 
on  foot  to  assure  Great  Britain  "the  mastery  of  the 
seas." 

BRITISH   PLOT   TO   MURDER   SIR  ROGER   CASEMENT 
FAILS 

Sir  Roger  Casement  expected  to  leave  Berlin 
in  February,  1915,  for  Christiania,  Norway,  to  lay 
the  proofs  before  the  Norwegian  Government  of 
a  conspiracy  to  capture  and  return  him  to  Eng- 
land or  kill  him,  the  chief  conspirator  being  Mans- 
field DeC.  Findlay,  the  British  Minister  to  Nor- 
way, who  endeavored  to  bribe  a  servant  in  the 
employ  of  Sir  Roger,  one  Adler  A.  Christenson, 
a  Norwegian,  who  was  to  receive  at  least  $25,000 
as  a  reward  for  his  treachery  and  betrayal  of  his 
master,  if  successful.  Sir  Roger  Casement  has 
shown  copies  of  the  correspondence  exposing  the 
conspiracy  to  the  German  Foreign  Office  and 
[25] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

photographic  copies  are  being  sent  by  Sir  Roger 
to  his  friends  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
He  is  regarded  by  the  British  Government  in  ex- 
actly the  same  light  as  Robert  Emmet  and  other 
patriots  who  were  swung  to  their  death  from  Brit- 
ish scaffolds.  If  captured  and  brought  to  Eng- 
land, this  patriotic  Irishman  will  be  charged  with 
high  treason  to  the  Crown  and  executed.  Fearing 
that  the  difficulties  of  capturing  him  could  not  be 
surmounted,  the  British  Minister  to  Norway  in- 
structed Christenson  to  lure  Sir  Roger  Casement 
to  a  point  on  the  coast,  where  a  British  ship  could 
run  in  and  get  him,  "or,  still  better,  knock  him 
on  the  head."  Announcement  is  officially  made 
from  the  Berlin  Foreign  Office  that  the  discovery 
of  the  conspiracy  has  been  submitted  to  the 
American  Ambassador  and  that  copies  will  be 
sent  to  Secretary  of  State  Bryan,  at  Washington. 
England  must  get  rid  of  Casement  at  any  cost, 
for  he  represents  the  true  spirit  of  Irish  nation- 
ality, which  is  the  faith  and  hope  of  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  Celts  and  the  Gaels  throughout 
the  world. 

The  English  spy  system  has  been  developed  to 
an  extraordinary  degree.     There  are  few  pages 
of  Irish  history  free  from  the  sinister  story  of 
[26] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

the  spy  and  the  informer.  Where  the  system  of 
paid  spies  fails,  the  lure  of  British  gold  to  bribe 
the  servants  of  illustrious  Irishmen  to  betray 
their  masters  is  a  common  occurrence  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  British  Empire.  The  servant  of  Sir 
Roger  Casement  proved  incorruptible,  otherwise 
another  Irish  patriot  would  have  been  destroyed. 


[27] 


UNANSWERABLE 

IF  THE  Kaiser  wanted  to  break  the  peace  of  the  world, 
why  should  he  have  waited  until  his  country  was 
ringed  round  with  hostile  alliances?  If  he  wanted  war 
with  his  present  opponents,  why  did  he  refrain  from 
urging  war  on  England  when  the  English  armies  were 
engaged  in  sanguinary  combat  with  the  Boer  Republic 
or  with  the  Russians  during  their  life  and  death  strug- 
gle with  the  Japanese  hosts?  Is  he  not  the  only  great 
ruler  in  the  world  who  kept  his  country  at  peace  from 
the  beginning  of  his  reign  and  for  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century? 


[28] 


EMPEROR  WILLIAM  OF  GERMANY 

"Sie  haben  mir  das  Schwert  in  die  Hand  gedriickt;  ich 
kann  nicht  anders." 

"They  have  forced  the  sword  into  my  hand.  I  cannot  do 
otherwise." 


CHAPTER  II 

EMPEROR  WILLIAM   OF   GERMANY 

"Sie  hob  en  mir  das  Schwert  in  die  Hand 
gedriickt:  ich  kann  nicht  anders."  ("They  have 
forced  the  sword  into  my  hand.  I  cannot  do 
otherwise.") 

These  were  the  words  from  the  lips  of  the 
Kaiser  as  the  command  went  forth  to  the  German 
people  to  defend  the  Fatherland  against  the  na- 
tions who  had  hemmed  them  in.  The  patriotic 
reply  was  unanimous  and  instantaneous.  No  such 
evidence  of  the  solidarity  of  a  great  nation,  faced 
by  a  common  danger,  is  furnished  by  the  world's 
history.  The  dulled  legions  of  Russia  responded 
slowly  while  revolutions  burst  forth  throughout 
the  vast  Russian  Empire.  England  declared  war 
on  Germany  with  her  cabinet  split  in  twain,  the 
war  denounced  in  Parliament,  followed  by  sedi- 
tion in  Ireland,  protests  in  Canada,  armed  rebel- 
lion in  the  Transvaal  and  Orange  State,  mutinies 
in  India  and  revolution  in  Egypt.  The  govern- 
ment of  Portugal  is  still  in  a  state  of  disorder  over 
[29] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

its  entrance  to  the  war  theatre.  The  divisions  in 
Turkey  are  apparent. 

In  Germany  the  people  are  united.  All  party 
lines  have  fallen — to  be  rebuilt  after  the  war 
along  new  alignments,  but  now  the  motto  is  "One 
for  all — all  for  one."  While  the  whole  world, 
with  mixed  feelings  and  bated  breath,  watches 
its  most  interesting  figure — the  Kaiser.  They 
contrast  that  strong  figure  and  resolute  face  with 
the  weak  apparitions  and  mediaeval  figures  of 
King  George  and  the  Czar  of  the  Russias,  and 
they  find  in  the  Emperor  the  very  embodiment  of 
the  German  progress  and  efficiency  which  earned 
the  hate  and  jealousy  of  the  mistress  of  the  seas. 
All  of  the  numerous  German  political  divisions 
have  been  unified  in  support  of  the  Kaiser — the 
great  Socialist  party,  the  Catholic  party  (the 
centre),  the  Conservatives,  Poles,  National  Lib- 
erals and  Progressives. 

The  private  life  and  domestic  virtues  of 
William  of  Germany  typify  in  their  practice  the 
dominant  and  indestructible  features  of  all  that 
is  best  in  the  German  character.  He  is  one  of 
the  few  kings  in  the  history  of  the  world  untainted 
by  scandal  or  weakened  by  vice.  His  affection 
for  his  family,  his  devotion  to  his  friends,  his 
[so] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

abstemious  habits,  the  Spartan  simplicity  of  his 
personal  living,  are  admired  by  all  observers.  He 
rises  at  five  in  the  morning,  works  many  hours 
of  the  day  and  night  and  is  Emperor  in  fact  as 
well  as  in  name.  His  motto  is,  "Rest  means 
rust."  He  finds  time  for  simple  amusements,  out- 
door exercise,  and  visitors  find  him  one  of  the 
freshest  and  most  alert  men  in  Europe.  No  one 
more  than  he  realizes  that  the  German  problem  is 
economic,  and  therefore  he  studies  all  important 
works  of  political  economy  and  is  the  keenest  stu- 
dent on  a  throne  of  the  progress  of  governments. 
He  went  to  war,  as  he  believed,  to  save  the  future 
of  Germany.  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  said,  "The 
Emperor  was  the  most  sorrowful  man  in  the 
world  when  he  realized  that  war  could  not  be 
averted." 

For  three  centuries  religious  differences  had 
created  a  sharp  cleavage  in  the  German  states. 
Fierce  and  prolonged  wars  had  been  fought  be- 
tween sects  of  Christians.  Under  the  reign  of 
the  present  ruler,  Protestants,  Catholics  and  Jews 
live  together  in  the  greatest  harmony.  The  broad 
spirit  and  tolerance  of  the  Emperor,  his  catholic 
view  of  all  worshippers  or  non-believers,  are  con- 
trasted with  the  religious  persecutions  sponsored 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

by  the  Czar  of  Russia  and  the  French  Govern- 
ment. The  latter  drives  the  nuns  from  France 
during  the  same  period  that  the  Jews  are  being 
persecuted  and  murdered  in  Russia.  The  King 
of  England  refuses  to  permit  his  army  to  enforce 
the  terms  of  a  Home  Rule  Bill,  thrice  voted  by 
Parliament,  lest  the  law  be  followed  by  armed 
rebellion  in  the  name  of  religion.  Under  Em- 
peror William,  for  twenty-six  years  Germany  has 
known  religious  peace. 


[32] 


CHAPTER  III 

ENGLAND  LENGTHENING  THE  AMERICAN  BREAD 
LINE 

SYMPATHY  for  the  Belgians  is  general  in  Amer- 
ica and  England  has  taken  every  advantage  of 
that  feeling  to  hide  her  tracks  in  the  work  of  de- 
stroying American  commerce  on  the  high  seas. 
The  average  American  citizen  is  a  curious  com- 
bination of  the  Yankee  trader  and  the  senti- 
mentalist. More  than  any  other  nation,  we  are 
carried  off  our  feet  by  great  gusts  of  sympathy 
for  a  stricken  people.  This  was  the  case  with  the 
downfall  of  Poland,  of  Hungary,  and  of  Ireland. 
Only  two  foreigners  that  the  writer  recalls  have 
been  permitted  to  address  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States.  One  was  Kossuth,  the  Hungarian 
patriot;  the  second,  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  the 
Irish  leader. 

But  we  soon  forget  our  sympathy  and  reaction 
sets  in  when  the  principal  American  nerves,  the 
pocket  nerves,  ache  and  throb  too  long.  He  is 
blind  indeed  who  fails  to  see  that  the  German 
cause  has  greatly  advanced  in  the  month  of  Jan- 

[33] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

uary,  1915,  in  all  sections  of  the  United  States. 
Not  only  is  Thought  gradually  working  itself 
clear,  but  the  American  who  wants  to  be  fair  is 
beginning  to  warm  toward  the  side  where  100,- 
000,000  people  struggle  against  700,000,000,  and 
with  the  products  of  the  rest  of  the  world  aiding 
this  huge  majority  and  neutral  countries  work- 
ing overtime  supplying  the  allies  alone  with  arma- 
ment and  war  supplies.  Overtopping  all,  the 
American  is  commencing  to  realize  that  canny 
England,  not  Germany,  is  depriving  the  United 
States  of  her  commerce.  Never  does  a  German 
man-of-war  seize  an  American  ship  for  contra- 
band. All  of  these  outrages  have  been  per- 
petrated by  the  ruler  of  the  seas.  At  last  Uncle 
Sam  is  awake  and  is  questioning  England,  as  he 
questioned  her  in  1861,  and  the  average  citizen 
is  sitting  up  and  taking  notice  of  the  answer. 

The  cotton  planters  down  South  last  year,  who 
sold  Germany  2,350,000  bales  of  cotton,  are  for- 
getting some  of  Belgium's  horrors  in  their  own 
woes  as  they  realize  that  the  British  embargo 
cut  off  the  German  and  Austrian  market,  drove 
cotton  down  to  famine  prices,  enabled  the  shrewd 
English  cotton  mill  buyers  to  get  cotton  at  a 
frightful  loss  to  the  American  planter  and  at  a 

[34] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

huge  profit  to  the  English  buyer.  Your  cotton 
planter  is  writing  letters  by  the  thousands  now 
telling  how  the  English  worked  the  most  success- 
ful trade  trick  known  to  man  and,  after  making 
the  planter  practically  give  away  his  cotton,  then 
lifted  it  from  the  contraband  list  so  that  Ger- 
many and  Austria  would  pay  more.  But  all 
at  the  expense  of  the  cotton  growers  of  the 
South.  The  sunburnt  man  under  the  soft  wool 
hat  in  Dixie  is  digging  up  his  school  histories 
these  days  to  remind  his  neighbors  of  Marion  the 
Swamp  Fox  who  hunted  the  British  redcoats  out 
of  South  Carolina,  and  he  is  reading  up  the  rifle- 
men of  the  swamps  and  forests  of  the  Southland 
who  drove  the  last  remnants  of  Great  Britain 
ffom  the  United  States  in  1815,  when  Andrew 
Jackson,  the  son  of  an  expatriated  Irish  linen 
weaver,  from  Carrickfergus,  defeated  Paken- 
ham  at  New  Orleans.  And  when  he  considers 
his  cotton  losses  and  the  history  of  his  coun- 
try, his  viewpoint  of  Germany  changes  won- 
derfully. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  Secretary  of  State,  writing 

to    Ambassador    Pinckney    at    London,    said: 

"Great  Britain  might  feel  the  desire  of  starving 

an  enemy  nation,  but  she  can  have  no  right  of 

[35] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

doing  it  at  our  loss  nor  of  making  us  the  instru- 
ment of  it." 

Great  Britain  has  destroyed  the  commerce  of 
the  United  States,  an  innocent  party  in  the  war, 
with  Germany,  Austria-Hungary,  and  Turkey, 
and  to  an  important  extent  with  neutrals  like 
Denmark,  Holland  and  Italy.  Her  policy  of 
starving  Germany  out  is  actually  creating  more 
cases  of  starvation  in  the  United  States  than  in 
Germany.  There  are  few  unemployed  in  Ger- 
many, because  the  government  has  succeeded  in 
paying  wages,  through  public  and  private  work, 
to  all  left  at  home. 

Let  us  see  why  so  many  workmen  in  American 
agricultural  implement  factories  are  idle.  Last 
year  Germany  bought  of  us  $3,000,000  worth  of 
mowers  and  reapers;  hay  rakes,  $64,000;  plant- 
ers, $20,000;  plows,  $213,000;  threshers,  $261,- 
000.  At  $2.50  per  day  in  wages,  that  loss  ac- 
counts for  nearly  5,000  idle  men.  In  brass  goods 
she  took  $1,642,000,  which  loss  throws  2,000 
brass  workers  out  of  work.  Starving  out  the 
Germans  and  Austrians  will  cost  the  farmers  of 
the  United  States  not  less  than  $40,000,000  in  a 
year. 

Germany  absorbs  one-half  of  the  exported 
[36] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

American  wood  alcohol  used  in  the  arts.  Last 
year  she  with  Austria  took  $50,000,000  of  "our 
copper  and  copper  wares.  Averaging  the  wages 
of  the  Montana  and  Michigan  miners  at  $4  per 
day,  that  means  40,000  copper  miners  and  work- 
ers added  to  the  bread  line.  In  bleached  cotton 
cloth  she  took  from  us  $1,260,000;  cotton  waste, 
$1,000,000;  corsets,  $88,000 ;  mixed  goods,  $178,- 
000;  phosphate,  $2,700,000;  binder  twine,  $91,- 
000;  'dried  apples,  $1,208,000;  ripe  apples,  $1,209,- 
000;  apricots,  $800,000;  peaches,  $170,000; 
prunes,  $2,110,000;  glue,  $78,000;  rubber  goods, 
$1,200,000;  shoes,  $132,000;  iron  and  steel 
products,  $4,800,000;  adding  machines,  $370,000; 
cash  registers,  $1,200,000. 

Now  figures  are  usually  dry  reading  and  we 
will  not  continue,  but  the  statement  can  be  safely 
made  that  England,  by  declaring  practically 
everything  contraband  intended  for  Germany 
and  Austria,  excepting  cotton,  has  thrown  out 
of  employment  and  reduced  to  a  state  of  want 
from  350,000  to  450,000  men,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  fearful  curtailment  of  trade  an3  traffic  in 
other  directions. 

The  oldest  living  Americans  recall  the  "days 
when  the  American  flag  flew  over  thousands  of 
[37] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

fast  clippers,  when  more  than  three-fourths  of 
the  commerce  of  our  country  was  carried  in 
American  bottoms.  He  reads  from  his  history 
how  England  took  advantage  of  the  Civil  War 
to  seize  American  trade  and,  having  destroyed 
our  commerce  as  our  country  lay  prostrate,  the 
oldest  citizen  is  surprised  at  the  present  genera- 
tion, which  seems  supine  and  helpless  to  protect 
its  own  products  from  the  dominant  power  on 
the  high  seas.  Men  are  asking  themselves,  at 
this  hour,  by  what  right  does  England  persist  in 
destroying  our  commerce,  making  an  innocent 
nation  suffer  and  increasing  the  store  of  human 
misery  in  this  country.  The  patriotic  American 
is  insisting  on  an  answer  to  the  query  why  Amer- 
ican products  on  the  high  seas  should  not  be  held 
as  sacred  as  though  they  were  on  land.  The 
world  may  be  suffering  from  Militarism,  but 
America  surely  is  declining  because  she  is  held 
at  the  mercy  of  a  relentless  foreign  Navalism. 

The  American  war  of  1812  with  England  was 
due  chiefly  to  British  interference  with  our  ex- 
port trade.  The  writer  has  read  the  famous  de- 
bate from  the  annals  of  Congress  in  January, 
1812.  John  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  denounced 
the  bill  to  increase  the  army.  He  denounced  his 
[381 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

colleagues  in  the  Senate  who  resented  the  un- 
friendly commercial  acts  of  England  in  taking 
American  goods  as  contraband.  He  was  an- 
swered by  Senator  John  C.  Calhoun,  of  South 
Carolina,  who  said:  "A  nation  commands  re- 
spect which  insists  on  protecting  its  commerce. 
We  resent  the  depredation  on  every  branch  of 
our  commerce,  including  our  direct  export  trade 
and  the  products  of  our  fields  and  farms.  What 
shall  we  do,  abandon  or  defend  our  own  commer- 
cial and  maritime  rights  and  the  personal  liber- 
ties of  our  citizens  in  exercising  them?'* 

One  of  the  greatest  men  of  the  period,  perhaps 
the  greatest,  was  Henry  Clay,  of  Kentucky, 
thrice  a  candidate  for  President,  the  idol  and 
leader  of  the  Whig  Party.  He  was  speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  and  on  the  last  day 
of  December,  1811,  he  took  the  floor  to  defend 
the  army  measure,  and  he  said:  "For  argu- 
ment's sake,  let  us  concede  the  fact  that  the 
French  Emperor  is  aiming  at  universal  empire; 
can  Great  Britain  challenge  our  sympathies 
when,  instead  of  putting  forth  her  arms  to  pro- 
tect the  world,  she  has  converted  the  war  into  a 
means  of  self-aggrandizement;  when,  under  pre- 
tence of  defending  them,  she  has  destroyed  the 
]39] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

commerce  and  abused  the  rights  of  every  neutral 
nation  and  trampled  on  the  rights  of  every  na- 
tion; when  she  has  attempted  to  annihilate  every 
vestige  of  the  public  maritime  code  of  which  she 
professes  to  be  the  champion  ?  Shall  we  bear  the 
cuffs  and  scoffs  of  British  arrogance  because  we 
may  entertain  chimerical  fears  of  French  subju- 
gation? .  .  .  We  cannot  secure  our  independ- 
ence of  one  power  by  a  dastardly  submission  to 
the  will  of  another.  .  .  .  When  did  submission 
to  one  wrong  induce  an  adversary  to  cease  his 
encroachments  on  the  party  submitting?  But  we 
are  told  that  we  ought  only  to  go  to  war  when 
our  territory  is  invaded.  How  much  better  than 
invasion  is  the  blocking  of  our  very  ports  and 
harbors,  insulting  our  towns,  plundering  our 
merchants,  and  scouring  our  coasts?  If  our 
fields  are  surrendered,  are  they  in  a  better  con- 
dition than  if  invaded?  When  the  murderer  is 
at  our  doors,  shall  we  meanly  skulk  to  our  cells, 
or  shall  we  boldly  oppose  him  at  the  entrance?" 
The  English  financial  reports,  commenting  on 
the  condition  of  the  British  Empire  after  six 
months  of  the  war,  reached  New  York  about 
February  4,  1915.  They  fully  corroborate  the 
claim  of  the  writer  that  the  United  States  is  really 
[40] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

the  chief  industrial  sufferer  of  all  the  great  na- 
tions. Our  people  have  been  strung  along  and 
out-manoeuvred  by  the  clever  wiles  of  English 
diplomacy.  The  salve  of  flattery  extended  from 
the  hands  across  the  sea  will  not  heal  the  business 
bruises  dealt  to  Brother  Jonathan  by  the  clever 
financiers  of  Lombard  Street.  While  the  bread 
line  lengthens  in  America,  the  unemployed  are 
decreasing  throughout  England.  The  Cunard, 
White  Star,  Red  Star,  Anchor  and  other  English 
steamship  lines,  headed  by  the  dominating  Eng- 
lish interests  in  Wall  Street,  have  intrigued  so 
well  at  Washington  that  all  parties  are  playing 
into  their  hands  and  no  relief  is  to  be  afforded 
American  shipping.  More  frightful  will  be  the 
peril  to  the  United  States  if  the  submarine  cam- 
paign launched  by  the  Germans  against  merchant 
ships  flying  the  British  flag  should  continue  as 
successful  as  it  has  begun.  Nearly  all  of  our 
commerce  to  Europe  is  carried  in  vessels  flying 
the  Union  Jack,  so  helpless  and  unimportant  are 
we  on  the  ocean.  Discerning  Americans  perceive 
that  England,  not  Germany,  has  brought  about 
this  destruction  of  American  shipping.  We  are 
not  deceived  by  the  figures  showing  increased  ex- 
ports. Our  working  men  in  urban  centres  know 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

that  wheat  mounting  up  to  $2  per  bushel  pads  the 
export  trade  more  than  wheat  at  ninety  cents  per 
bushel,  and  corn,  oats,  barigjl  and  other  f%rm 
products  likewise.  They  realize  thejgajuof  bread 
is  six  cents  instead  of  five  centsTand  that  means 
an  extra  tax  of  $16,000,000  on  the  breadeaters 
of  New  York  City  alone.  The  export  of  war- 
priced  ammunition,  wagons,  horses,  etc.,  etc.,  is 
no  proof  of  a  return  to  prosperity.  The  writer 
within  a  week  has  seen  no  sign  of  diminishment 
in  the  great  armies  of  idle  men  surrounding 
American  factories. 

Many  American  cotton  mills  are  idle  and  many 
more  are  working  on  part  time.  The  spinners 
and  other  cotton  operatives'  unions  report  more 
idle  men  and  women  than  at  any  period  since  the 
year  1893.  The  cotton  trade  in  England  is  boom- 
ing. The  Lancashire  mills,  with  low-priced 
American  cotton,  are  running  day  and  night. 
British  consols  are  selling  as  well  and  at  as  high 
a  figure  as  before  the  war.  Great  Western  Rail- 
way shares  of  England,  selling  before  the  war  at 
1 14,  are  selling  at  115;  the  same  is  noticed  in  the 
standard  English  railway  shares.  All  of  the 
English  boats,,  are  rolling  up  enormous  profits, 
while  our  Senators  rT^ht  over  personal,  political 
"[42] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

and  extraneous  questions,  and  cannot  agree  on 
any  shipping  policy.  While  Nero  was  fiddling, 
Rome  was  burning.  Iron  and  steel  in  the  United 
States  is  too  cheap  to  be  made  at  a  profit  and  sold 
abroad  on  account  of  the  freight  rates  being 
tripled  by  English  ship  owners.  Whereas,  the 
iron  and  steel  trade  of  the  English  makers  is 
flourishing.  The  United  States  Steel  Company 
has  cut  out  the  dividend  on  its  common  stock, 
affecting  very  many  thousands  of  investors,  while 
the  principal  English  steel  mills  declared  divi- 
dends last  month.  The  British  manufacturer  is 
attacking  the  Germans  successfully  in  the  former 
markets  of  the  latter  and  organizing  an  effective 
foreign  trade  campaign  because  they  have  the 
ships.  We  have  nothing  but  sympathy  for  the 
Allies  and  only  relief  ships  for  Belgium  and  few 
commercial  ships  to  fly  the  Stars  and  Stripes  on 
the  seven  oceans.  The  leading  Anglo-American 
weekly  is  Harper's  Weekly,  and  Great  Britain  has 
made  times  so  "good"  in  America  that  Harper's 
Weekly  is  destitute  of  advertising.  Despite  six 
months  of  the  war,  the  English  coal  exports  only 
fell  off  17,353,000,  while  ours  fell  off  31,000,000 
tons.  The  American  woollen  manufacturing  trade 
is  depressed,  while  the  English  woollen  business  is 
[43] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

steadily  improving.  In  six  months  the  American 
woollen  trade  is  reduced  24  per  cent. ;  in  England, 
less  than  18  per  cent.  In  1913  Great  Britain  ex- 
ported 97,593,400  yards  of  linen  to  the  United 
States,  and  increased  the  amount  to  107,550,300 
yards  in  1914,  despite  the  war.  A  fair  evidence 
of  the  prosperity  of  the  English  people  rests  in 
the  figures  showing  a  gain  per  capita  in  the 
amount  of  tea,  coffee  and  sugar  consumed.  The 
imports  and  exports  of  silk  by  England  have  in- 
creased over  1913  and  the  year  1912.  With  Ger- 
many and  France,  in  spite  of  the  war,  having 
found  means  to  properly  provide  for  the  unem- 
ployed, with  England  doing  up  America  in  the 
trade  of  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa,  the  question  is 
often  asked  by  the  students  of  history,  After  fifty 
years  of  unexampled  prosperity,  have  American 
business  men  grown  stale  an'd  become  enervated 
by  past  successes?  Are  they  wanting  in  the  in- 
itiative, daring,  resource  and  alertness  of  their 
fathers,  who  built  a  merchant  marine  that  coped 
with  England  successfully  for  half  a  century? 

This  is  the  15th  day  of  February,  1915.  The 
bread  line  grows  instead  of  receding,  an'd  the 
world  is  in  the  seventh  month  of  the  war.  The 
price  of  bread  throughout  the  City  of  New  York 
has  risen  another  cent  per  loaf.  The  pangs  of 
[44] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

hunger  have  reached  the  iron  and  steel  districts 
of  Cleveland,  Chicago,  Pittsburgh,  and  other 
cities.  Vast  armies  of  the  worried  mechanics  and 
laborers  congregate  about  the  shops  and  factories. 
Special  patrols  are  established  along  the  railway 
lines  to  keep  men  off  the  tracks,  who,  being  pen- 
niless, are  trying  to  steal  free  rides  in  the  hope  of 
getting  work  in  the  next  town. 

The  writer  has  seen  the  bread  line  this  month 
in  some  seven  American  cities.  One  does  not 
have  to  visit  Europe  to  see  the  human  misery 
caused  by  the  war. 

Elbert  H.  Gary,  Chairman  of  the  Mayor's 
Committee  on  Unemployment,  reports  on  Feb- 
ruary 8,  1915,  that  there  are  200,000  more  un- 
employed in  New  York  City  than  last  Winter. 
The  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company  can- 
vass shows  cases  of  unemployment  in  35,000  out 
of  146,000  families  whose  members  insured  in 
that  company. 

The  custom  collectors  for  all  the  important 
ports  in  New  York  report  officially  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  that  there  is  an  enormous 
congestion  of  farm  products  and  merchandise  of 
all  kinds  in  every  port  in  the  United  States  which 
cannot  be  transported  to  Europe  for  want  of 
American  ships. 

[45] 


CHAPTER  IV 

ALSACE 

MOST  Americans  have  sympathized  with  France 
in  the  loss  of  her  provinces,  Alsace  and 
Lorraine,  as  the  result  of  the  Franco-Prussian 
war  of  1871.  This  sentiment  is  worthy,  but  is 
not  founded  on  material  grounds  to-day,  because 
the  record  shows  that  this  detached  territory  is 
far  more  prosperous  under  German  administra- 
tion. In  forty  years  the  population  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine  has  nearly  tripled,  and  produces  a  vast 
amount  of  grain,  tobacco,  iron  and  coal,  and  with 
an  area  of  only  5,580  square  miles,  one-sixth  the 
area  of  Ireland,  is  a  veritable  beehive  of  cotton, 
woollen,  silks  and  chemical  industries. 

Contrast  the  state  of  Alsace-Lorraine  with 
that  of  misgoverned  Ireland,  where  the  popula- 
tion is  to-day  only  one-third  of  the  number  of 
people  living  in  Ireland  seventy  years  ago. 

While  English  rule  has  been  draining  the  life- 
blood  of  Ireland,  leaving  only  the  remnants  of  a 
people,  this  little  territory  along  the  banks  of 
the  Rhine  has  gone  forward  by  leaps  and  bounds, 
[46] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

with  the  people  so  contented  that  sentiment  alto- 
gether throughout  the  province  has  steadily 
changed  in  favor  of  Gefmany,  and  the  Alsatians 
have  furnished  their  full  quota  of  soldiers  for 
the  Fatherland.  Ireland,  too,  has  iron  and  coal, 
and  could  manufacture  cotton,  wool  and  silks,  but 
it  is  not  for  the  commercial  interest  of  England 
to  have  an  industrial  Ireland.  She  must  always 
be  confined  under  the  British  Empire  to  remain 
an  agricultural  spot,  a  rear  garden  to  supply  food 
for  England. 

The  district  of  Alsace-Lorraine  contains  the 
same  percentage  of  Roman  Catholics  as  Ireland, 
about  76  per  cent.  The  beautiful  Rhine  flows  all 
along  its  borders,  filled  with  vessels  carrying 
commerce  of  the  province  to  the  world.  The 
River  Shannon  of  Ireland  is  as  grand  and  as 
beautiful,  but  you  may  go  along  its  shores  for 
days  and  never  see  a  sail.  The  land  along  the 
Shannon  is  as  rich  and  fertile  as  the  lands  on 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine.  The  harbors  of  the  Ger- 
man river  are  no  safer  or  deeper.  For  every 
$128  owned  by  an  Irishman,  the  Alsatian  pos- 
sesses $915.  The  farmer  of  these  annexed  Ger- 
man provinces  can  sell  the  products  of  his  farm 
to  any  country  of  the  world  on  the  same  basis  as 
[47] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

any  other  province  or  colony  of  the  German  Em- 
pire. The  Irish  farmer  must  market  his  cattle 
and  farm  products  through  English  ports  alone. 
If  he  has  cows  or  sheep  to  sell  on  the  Continent 
he  must  first  ship  them  to  England,  divide  the 
profit  with  the  middleman  there,  and  take  what 
is  left.  It  was  this  infamous  method  of  trade 
suppression  that  led  to  the  successful  revolution 
of  the  American  colonists,  who  rebelled  against 
laws  which  required  American  farmers  to  ship 
their  products  through  English  market  channels. 

Germany  removed  from  the  provinces  of  Al- 
sace-Lorraine unjust,  artificial  checks,  and  pro- 
tected, rather  than  discouraged,  the  industries  of 
her  new  provinces,  which  has  steadily  weakened 
the  old  attachment  for  France.  The  provinces  of 
Alsace-Lorraine,  with  little  more  than  one-half 
the  population  of  Ireland,  has  sent  104,000  troops 
to  the  front  in  France  for  Germany,  whereas,  up 
to  the  10th  of  October,  scarcely  10,000  recruits 
had  been  secured  in  all  of  Ireland. 

In  Ireland  the  people  are  not  let  know  the 
extent  of  the  German  victories  on  land  and  sea, 
lest  the  knowledge  would  interfere  with  the  ex- 
traordinary methods  of  securing  recruits  for  the 
British  armies.  The  Home  Rule  Bill,  signed  by 
[48] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

King  George,  to  be  amended  by  Ulster  and  to  go 
into  effect  after  the  war,  is  the  recruiting  bait. 
Economic  pressure  will  never  permit  Ireland  to 
become  a  near  commercial  competitor  of  Eng- 
land. The  latter  with  its  38,000,000  of  people  con- 
gested on  a  small  island,  cannot  afford  to  have  Ire- 
land manufacture  the  same  line  of  goods.  She 
must  be  confined  to  the  products  of  the  soil,  to 
linens,  and  food  products.  Hence,  a  Home  Rule 
measure  which  expressly  prohibits  Ireland  from 
foreign  commerce  save  through  the  British  Par- 
liament. 

The  Parliamentary  Party  is  called  Nationalist 
— a  misnomer.  'Tis  a  far  cry,  hearkened  back 
a  century,  from  Mr.  Redmond's  purely  local 
measure,  installing  his  followers  in  the  offices  ex- 
pected through  the  execution  of  the  bill,  to  the 
dying  request  of  Robert  Emmet  forbidding  his 
countrymen  to  write  his  epitaph  until  Ireland 
should  become  a  free  nation. 

Who  knows  in  the  fulness  of  time  but  that 
Germany  and  destiny  will  write  Emmet's 
epitaph ! 

As  for  the  descendants  of  the  Celts,  if  the 
issue  is,  according  to  Mr.  Joseph  H.  Choate,  the 
"intense  hatred  of  Germany  for  England  and  her 
[49] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

lofty  ambition  to  establish  a  world  empire  upon 
the  ruins  of  the  British  Empire,  their  answer 
is:  "The  British  Empire  ruined  Ireland — she 
can  fare  no  worse  and,  with  the  friendship  of 
Germany,  her  lot  may  be  bettered." 


[50] 


CHAPTER  V 

GERMANS    IN    THE   UNITED   STATES 

EUROPE,  not  England,  is  the  Mother  Country  of 
America.  Of  the  white  men  and  women  within 
the  borders  of  the  United  States,  we  should  be 
safe  in  asserting  that  at  least  twenty  per  cent. 
are  of  German  stock.  To  call  such  a  people 
Huns,  vandals  and  barbarians  should  be  con- 
sidered ridiculous  in  this  country.  They  form 
one  of  the  best  elements  in  our  vast  heterogeneous 
and  cosmopolitan  population.  The  Germans 
make  first-class  American  citizens;  they  are 
patriotic,  literate  and  industrious;  thrifty,  sensi- 
ble and  modest.  Many  Americans  marvel  at  the 
patience  of  these  worthy  people,  under  the  calum- 
nies hurled  by  thousands  of  vilifiers  at  the  land 
of  their  fathers  and  mothers. 

From  the  dawn  of  American  independence  the 
German  emigrants  have  been  the  friends  of 
American  freedom.  They  fought  bravely  and 
loyally  on  many  American  battlefields  and  they 
have  given  this  country  the  greatest  help  in  fur- 
nishing steadiness  and  stability  of  character. 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

It  was  Johann  DeKalb,  of  Huttendorf,  Ba- 
varia, who  accompanied  Lafayette  to  the  side  of 
George  Washington  in  1777.  He  served  as 
major  general  of  the  Continental  armies  in  New 
Jersey  and  Maryland  until  April,  1780.  He  lost 
his  life  in  the  battle  of  Camden  in  August,  1780. 
The  writer  remembers,  near  his  boyhood  home, 
the  town  Steuben,  where  the  illustrious  patriot, 
Friedrich  Wilhelm  Steuben,  died  in  1794.  Sec- 
ond only  to  the  immortal  Washington,  this  gal- 
lant German  soldier  held  up  the  courage  of  the 
starving  patriots  in  the  dark  winter  nights  of 
Valley  Forge.  He  gave  up  his  own  food  to  the 
privates.  Washington  acknowledged  that  to 
Steuben's,  more  than  any  other  influence,  was 
due  the  superb  discipline  and  organization  of  the 
patriotic  rebel  army.  It  was  he  who  received 
the  first  offer  of  capitulation  from  Lord  Corn- 
wallis,  the  British  commander-in-chief. 

In  the  Civil  War  the  Germans  dyed  the  fields 
of  the  South  with  their  blood.  The  Union  could 
not  have  been  saved  without  them.  In  April, 
1861,  as  the  gallant  Irish  69th  New  York  Regi- 
ment was  marching  down  Broadway,  their  band 
playing  "Garry  Owen"  and  "The  Star  Spangled 
Banner,"  on  their  way  to  join  the  Army  of  the 
[52] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Potomac,  three  German  regiments  from  Cincin- 
nati, Wisconsin  and  St.  Louis  were  on  their 
way  to  meet  them.  Patrick  Sarsfield  Gilmore, 
the  noted  bandmaster,  used  to  tell  of  the  German 
military  bands  playing  Irish  airs  on  St.  Patrick's 
Day  along  the  banks  of  the  Potomac. 

General  Carl  Schurz  distinguished  himself  at 
the  battle  of  Manassas  and  in  the  campaign  in 
Tennessee.  He  became  U.  S.  senator  from  Mis- 
souri, and  as  a  statesman,  writer  and  patriot  he 
ranks  as  one  of  the  foremost  Americans.  The 
German  veterans  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Re- 
public recall  the  glories  of  the  blond-haired  Ger- 
man boys  "who  fought  mit  Sigel"  in  the  Civil 
War.  Franz  Sigel  was  a  son  of  Baden,  who  or- 
ganized the  first  German  regiment  in  New  York. 
He  was  a  hero  of  Carthage  and  Pea  Ridge  and 
he  went  down  to  enduring  fame  when,  with  4,000 
men,  he  held  Maryland  Heights  against  General 
Early  and  15,000  men  in  1864. 

The  first  German  immigrants  settled  in  Penn- 
sylvania, and  their  agricultural  settlements  were 
such  that  they  were  visited  and  studied  by  our 
Eastern  colonist  agriculturalists.  The  Thirty 
Years'  War,  extending  over  the  soil  of  disunited 
and  dismembered  states,  had  wrought  ruin  and 

[53] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

destruction  on  homes  and  people  when  the  Ger- 
man, Furly,  obtained  a  grant  of  land  in  Eastern 
Pennsylvania  and  gathered  his  emigrants  from 
along  the  banks  of  the  Rhine.  They  landed  at 
Germantown  (which  is  now  part  of  the  city  of 
Philadelphia)  in  1683.  These  Germans  were 
the  first  of  our  foreigners  to  organize  against 
slavery.  Then  others  came  to  New  Jersey  and 
New  York,  founding  towns  with  such  typical 
German  names  as  Saugerties,  Rhinebeck,  Ger- 
man Flats,  Mannheim  and  Palatine,  N.  Y.  They 
settled  Berks  County,  Pennsylvania,  then  Mont- 
gomery and  Lancaster  Counties,  then  they 
trekked  on  to  Maryland,  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina  in  1732. 

They  reached  Georgia  from  Salzburg  in  1734, 
followed  by  the  Wurtembergers.  When  the 
War  of  1812  broke  out  the  German  young  men 
joined  the  army  of  Andrew  Jackson  and  did  their 
share  in  driving  the  British  out  of  this  country. 
From  the  year  1841  to  1900 — sixty  years — there 
have  been  added  to  our  population  not  less  than 
5,000,000  Germans.  The  marvellous  prosperity 
of  Germany  under  the  reign  of  the  present  Em- 
peror has  checked  emigration,  so  that  few  of 
these  worthy  and  welcome  emigrants  have  been 

[54] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

coming  to  our  shores  in  recent  years.  Men  and 
women  of  German  extraction  dominate  in  num- 
bers the  cities  of  Cincinnati  and  Milwaukee  and 
are  powerful  elements  in  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  In- 
dianapolis, Buffalo,  Cleveland  and  Baltimore. 
In  New  York  City  they  form  about  twenty  per 
cent,  of  the  population.  In  religion  there  are 
about  as  many  Catholic  as  Protestant  German- 
Americans. 

The  German  character  has  been  an  important 
element  in  the  upbuilding  of  the  United  States. 
They  are  our  largest  savings  bank  depositors  and 
home  builders;  their  instrumental  music  and 
their  singing  societies  have  brought  many  happy 
hours  to  American  hearts  and  homes.  Their  love 
of  children  have  made  them  the  toymakers  of 
the  world.  The  Nuremberg  toymaker  was 
freezing  in  the  trenches  last  Christmas  eve  and 
many  an  American  child  felt  the  effect  of  his 
absence. 

America  has  reason  to  be  thankful  for  the  ad- 
vent of  German  people  to  her  shores  and  for  the 
long  and  constant  friendship  of  the  German  Em- 
pire. Our  country  has  had  two  wars  with  Eng- 
land and  has  been  on  the  verge  of  two  more — 
in  1861  and  in  1893.  We  have  been  at  war  with 
[55] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Spain,  with  Tripoli  and  with  Mexico,  and  we 
have  been  nearly  at  war  with  France.  With 
Germany  we  have  not  had  the  slightest  misun- 
derstanding, and  her  government  and  people  have 
always  been  our  good  friends.  We  have  broken 
our  treaty  with  Russia  because  American  Jew- 
ish citizens  cannot  cross  her  territory.  No 
greater  calamity  could  befall  modern  civilization 
than  the  dismemberment  of  Germany  with  the 
aid  of  medieval  and  intolerant  Russia.  More 
power,  say  we  all,  to  the  strong  arm  of  the  gal- 
lant and  resolute  von  Hindenburg  in  the  East, 
who  so  far  has  resisted  Russian  invasion  of  Ger- 
many. 

No  country,  excepting  the  United  States,  per- 
haps, has,  in  the  past  forty  years,  made  such 
advances  in  economic  production  as  Germany. 
Americans  owe  this  wonderful  people  a  great 
debt  for  the  instruction  the  Germans  have  given 
them  in  chemistry,  medicine,  surgery,  electricity, 
in  waterpower  development,  inventions  and  vari- 
ous discoveries  and  improvements  in  art  and 
science.  The  Germans  taught  our  farmers  how 
to  avoid  waste  and  how  to  increase  crops.  Their 
municipal  governments  are  the  models  from 
which  our  progressive  city  officials  draw  their 
most  valuable  lessons.  Germany  was  the  suc- 
[56] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

cessful  pioneer  in  workmen's  compensation  laws, 
which  were  first  copied  in  this  country  by  Wis- 
consin, where  the  Germans  are  so  numerous  and 
influential.  Insurance  against  accident,  disease, 
death  and  old  age  is  thirty  years  old  in  the 
Fatherland.  The  German  success,  against  great 
natural  obstacles,  is  due  to  a  wonderful  spirit 
of  co-operative  effort,  organization,  thorough- 
ness and  solidarity. 

We  know  the  traits  of  the  Germans  in  Amer- 
ica. A  people  who  can  hymn  for  the  Father- 
land on  the  battlefield,  who  love  their  homes  and 
who  are  kindly  and  hospitable,  their  enemies  will 
never  convince  us  in  the  United  States  that  they 
could  become  aggressors  against  the  peace  and 
civilization  of  the  world.  The  Germans  in 
America  are  the  same  in  heart,  in  character  and 
in  feeling  as  the  people  of  the  Fatherland.  They 
could  not  be  disloyal  if  they  tried. 

No  less  an  American  authority  than  the  late 
United  States  Senator  John  Sherman  of  Ohio, 
when  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  said  that  the 
whole  of  Germany,  including  the  government, 
was  the  friend  of  the  Union  in  the  Civil  War. 
Prussia  loaned  a  large  amount  of  money  to  the 
United  States  when  our  country  was  hard 
pressed. 

[57] 


CHAPTER  VI 

WHY  ENGLAND  WILL  NEVER  GRANT  FREEDOM  TO 
IRELAND 

"Every  attempt  to  govern  Ireland  has  been 
from  an  English  standpoint,  and  as  if  for  the 
benefit  of  Englishmen  alone." — DR.  THOMAS 
ADDIS  EMMET. 

ENGLAND  will  always  remain  the  sole  enemy  of 
Ireland.  Economic  and  industrial  pressure  make 
her  the  natural  and  logical  destroyer  of  Irish  in- 
dustry and  commerce.  If  I  were  an  English  man- 
ufacturer or  trader  I,  too,  would  help  to  crush 
any  movement  to  make  Ireland  free.  We  would 
not  want  a  rival  in  our  own  line  at  our  shoulder, 
cutting  down  our  profits  and  interfering  with  our 
commercial  success.  Self-preservation  is  the  first 
law  of  nations  as  well  as  individuals.  England 
has  fixed  the  limits  in  the  shape  of  an  Irish  truck 
garden  which  will  furnish  food  for  the  English 
green  hills  of  Inishowen,  overlooking  the  wonder- 
ful harbor  of  Lough  Swilly,  County  Donegal,  de- 
serted then,  but  at  present  holding  the  great  Brit- 
ish fleet.  Twenty  miles  from  this  spot  the  super- 
[58] 


ROBERT  EMMET 

"When  my  country  takes  her  place  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth,  then,  and  not  till  then,  let  my  epitaph  be  written." 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

dreadnaught  Audacious  sank  to  the  bottom  of  the 
sea  at  the  hands  of  a  deadly  torpedo  launched  by 
a  German  submarine.*  Nowhere  in  the  world 
are  there  so  many  great  natural  harbors  as  on 
the  west  coast  of  Ireland — Donegal  Bay,  Sligo, 
Killala,  Clew,  Galway  Bays,  the  mouth  of  the 
Shannon,  and  Dingle  Bay  could  hold  the  fleets 
of  the  world. 

Ireland  contains  33,000  square  miles,  England 
58,000.  Ireland  is  more  fertile  than  either  Eng- 
land or  Scotland.  The  population  of  England  is 
close  to  35,000,000;  Ireland  is  stripped  down  to 
4,000,000  of  inhabitants,  and  ought  to  be  able 
to  support  in  comfort  15,000,000  of  people.  The 
island  contains  coal,  iron,  marble,  copper  and 
various  resources  not  possible  of  development  be- 
cause of  English  control  and  opposition.  Her 
industries  are  confined  to  a  small  section  of  the 
Northeast,  held  in  hand  by  the  descendants  of  in- 
vaders, fortified  originally  by  conquest,  and  rarely 
do  you  find  a  pure  native  holding  any  important 
business  station  in  any  of  the  thirty-two  counties 
of  the  island.  The  prevailing  fashion  is  to  class 
the  natives  as  lazy  and  incompetent  without  scru- 

*Although  three  months  have  passed  since  the  Audacious  was 
sunk,  no  Irish  newspaper  has  published  the  news. 

[59] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

tinizing  the  historic  and  economic  reasons  which 
have  brought  them  to  their  present  plight  and 
left  them  at  the  mercy  of  the  conquerors.  Few  of 
her  critics  take  into  account  the  repressive  com- 
mercial codes  of  centuries,  lifted  too  late,  in  part, 
to  restore  industry.  The  English  Parliament 
enacted  laws  which  ruined  the  once  prosperous 
manufacturing  industries  of  the  country.  As 
soon  as  Ireland  developed  an  important  direct  ex- 
port trade,  England  crushed  the  life  out  of  it  by 
export  tariffs,  hostile  duties  aimed  at  Irish  ex- 
ports solely.  At  one  time  Irish  woollens  were  the 
first  in  Europe.  The  output  of  her  looms  found 
their  way  to  all  the  cities  of  the  continent.  The 
cloth  makers  of  England  successfully  petitioned 
the  Parliament  to  place  an  arbitrary,  preferential 
export  duty  on  Irish  woollens,  which  annihilated 
the  industry.  That  trade  never  recovered  from 
the  blow.  England  gave  bounties  to  manufac- 
tures in  various  lines,  subsidies  to  ships,  but  none 
went  to  Ireland.  After  bankrupting  Ireland,  she 
removed  these  restrictions  in  the  midst  of  the  Con- 
tinental war,  exactly  as  she  promises  Home  Rule 
now,  as  an  emergency  measure  to  superinduce  re- 
cruiting for  the  British  army.  The  Irish  Volun- 
teers of  a  hundred  years,  or  more,  ago  were  or- 
[60] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

ganized  as  the  result  of  the  suppression  of  Irish 
trade.  They  forced  the  government  to  supply 
them  arms  in  the  same  maner  as  the  Irish  Volun- 
teers of  to-day.  The  great  wars  on  the  continent 
frightened  England  into  granting  an  Irish  Par- 
liament in  1782,  which  was  taken  away  from 
Ireland  twenty  years  later.  Pensioners  of  the 
government  and  traitors  destroyed  the  national 
cause  then  as  they  are  trying  to  do  to-day.  That 
brief  period  of  a  free  country  was  the  one  bright 
epoch  of  modern  Irish  history.  The  factories 
were  occupied  and  increasing  in  numbers  and 
output,  the  harbors  were  filled  with  ships,  and 
immigration  exceeded  emigration.  Irish  inde- 
pendence and  growing  commerce  aroused  fear- 
ful jealousies  on  the  part  of  her  more  powerful 
neighbor,  who  proceeded  to  crush  Ireland  again 
by  acts  of  repression.  This  led  to  rebellion 
and  bloodshed  and  the  execution  of  Rob- 
ert Emmet,  followed  by  the  destruction  of  Irish 
industries.  Then  came  seventy  years  of  horror, 
broken  only  by  the  gurgling  cries  of  a  strangled 
people.  Young  Ireland  rose  in  1848,  led  by  a 
dozen  educated  young  men,  but  the  effort  was 
futile.  Famine  had  done  to  death  a  million  people 
the  year  before,  another  million  fled  to  foreign 
[61] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

shores,  the  life  blood  of  the  nation  was  exhausted, 
but  her  children,  scattered  to  the  four  corners  of 
the  earth,  preserved  good  memories. 

One  afternoon  I  was  in  a  small  boat  on  Sligo 
Bay,  a  place  visited  by  few  tourists.  Scarcely  a 
sail  was  visible  in  the  great  harbor  provided  by 
nature,  neglected  by  man.  We  were  rowed  up 
the  Garvogue  River  by  a  very  old  man  to  Lough 
Gill.  No  lake  or  mountain  scenery  in  Switzer- 
land or  Colorado  is  more  beautiful.  And  yet 
no  boat  nor  hotel  nor  sign  of  habitation  on  that 
lake  or  near  it.  Six  miles  distant  was  the  dying 
city  of  Sligo  with  10,000  inhabitants,  old  and 
poor,  the  remnants  of  a  stricken  race.  Sligo  has 
nothing  to  show  at  the  end  of  900  years  but  the 
melancholy  ruins  of  a  once  flourishing  town,  her 
aged  men  and  women  and  their  rags.  Long  since 
the  most  of  the  stalwart  youth  departed  for  for- 
eign shores.  In  the  long  twilight  we  saw  the 
Irish  Volunteers  drilling  on  the  green  turf,  grim 
and  silent.  They  speak  low  in  Sligo,  almost  like 
a  whisper,  the  faces  seem  to  have  recorded  in  them 
the  lines  of  the  woes  of  centuries,  and  in  the  si- 
lence of  the  day  they  eye  the  great  harbor,  un- 
flecked  by  the  white  sails  of  their  childhood ;  and 
they  seem  to  look  across  the  seas  to  their  chil- 
[62] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

dren  in  America.  There  was  a  clay  when  the 
cattle  ships  for  the  Continent  stopped  at  Sligo. 
When  the  cattle  is  sold  now  it  must  be  first 
shipped  on  a  small  steamer  to  Glasgow  or  Liver- 
pool. The  English  middleman  must  have  his 
profit.  Iron  is  abundant  in  Sligo,  but  no  captains 
of  industry  are  there  to  mine  it.  An  Irish- Ameri- 
can dredging  contractor  who  stood  near  said  that 
with  men  and  money  he  could  make  that  harbor 
one  of  the  world's  best  located  shipping  ports. 

As  a  race  the  Irish  do  not  excel  in  finance,  in 
bartering  or  in  trading,  although  it  must  be  said 
that  in  the  last  three  decades  they  have  shown  con- 
siderable advancement  in  those  lines  of  commer- 
cial effort.  But  in  huge  constructive  projects  they 
are  foremost.  As  railroad  and  tunnel  builders, 
penetrating  mountains,  damming  rivers,  sea 
dredging,  building  skyscrapers,  harnessing  the 
forces  of  nature,  the  sons  of  the  Irish  bog  and 
ditch  diggers,  the  children  of  the  emigrant  labor- 
ers, are  the  great  engineering  contractors  of  the 
world.  They  are  daring  and  fearless,  no  physical 
'difficulty  seems  to  awe  them  and  they  tackle  the 
most  dangerous  operations  which  involve  the  loss 
of  life  and  money  underground.  In  a  syndicate 
of  fifteen  men,  who  offered  the  United  States  Gov- 
[63] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

ernment  to  build  the  Panama  Canal,  thirteen  bore 
Irish  names.  These  are  the  practical  men  of 
affairs,  badly  needed  in  Ireland,  who  could  lead 
the  way  for  the  industrial  development  of  the 
country  if  her  English  fetters  were  removed. 

That  her  sons  can  succeed  in  keen  commercial 
struggle  is  admitted  throughout  the  world.  The 
only  two  Irish  parliamentary  leaders  known  to 
the  present  generation  are  the  late  Charles  Stew- 
art Parnell  and  the  present  Mr.  Redmond.  Both 
men  are  of  the  land-owning  class  and  view  Ire- 
land from  an  agrarian  rather  than  an  indus- 
trial point  of  view.  The  Land  Act  has  proved  a 
great  blessing  to  agricultural  Ireland.  It  was 
passed  by  the  Tory  party.  Parnell  was  a  revolu- 
tionary and  a  Protestant,  although  a  practical 
statesman.  He  led  successfully  the  Land  League 
movement,  founded  and  organized  by  Michael 
Davitt.  I  first  met  him  in  America  as  a  boy  thirty 
years  ago.  He  looked  more  like  a  college  pro- 
fessor than  an  Irish  agitator  and  he  hated  the 
English  Government  of  all  parties  thoroughly  and 
whole  heartedly,  and  never  disguised  his  hate. 
Redmond  was  supposed  to  be  one  of  his  disciples, 
and  we  heard  Redmond  say  in  Buffalo  one  night, 
"I  would  tear  with  my  own  hands  into  shreds  the 
[64] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

British  Act  of  Union  with  Ireland."  He  got 
$14,000  from  the  audience  that  evening.  Poor 
Parnell  lies  in  his  grave,  under  a  green  sward,  in 
Glasnevin  Cemetery,  Dublin.  No  monument  is 
there,  but  a  fine  one  commemorates  his  memory  in 
Parnell  Square,  Dublin ;  and  one  bright  May  day 
I  saw  some  men  and  women  placing  great  wreaths 
of  flowers  on  that  silent  grave.  One  was  marked, 
"Done  to  Death.  From  the  workingmen  of  the 
Midland  Railroad";  another  read,  "From  the 
women  linen  workers  of  Antrim,"  and  another, 
"Sacred  to  the  memory  of  our  chief.  From  the 
lace  workers  of  Kerry."  The  effort  to  side-track 
Nationalist  Ireland,  if  the  dead  could  speak,  would 
make  the  voice  from  the  tomb  protest  as  Redmond 
appeals  to  the  peasants  to  die  for  England. 

As  a  land  owner,  John  Redmond,  according 
to  Irish  reports,  was  one  of  the  first  to  rush  in  and 
sell  his  estate  to  the  tenants  under  the  Wyndham 
land  purchase  act.  He  put  the  top  figure  on  his 
land  and  secured  the  maximum  figure  from  the 
land  board,  according  to  reports.  Immediately  the 
other  landlords  said,  "Redmond  is  your  leader, 
naturally  he  has  vast  influence  with  the  land 
board ;  we  will  take  the  same  rate  per  acre  as  Red- 
mond." Good  judges  in  Ireland  say  that  this  ex- 
[65] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

hibition  of  greed  on  the  part  of  Redmond  cost  the 
tenants  at  least  $9,000,000  in  excess  land  prices. 

Parnell  never  cared  for  money  and  died  poor. 
His  motto  on  the  land  question  was,  "Keep  a  firm 
grip  on  your  homesteads."  Redmond  was  finally 
made  leader  because  he  was  a  lieutenant  of  Par- 
nell. His  London  social  environment  has  caused 
him  to  forget  the  dying  warning  of  Parnell,  "Ire- 
land, never  trust  England !" 

Mr.  Redmond  consented  to  leave  out  of  "Na- 
tionalist Ireland"  six  counties,  including  the  an- 
cient see  of  Armagh.  This  concession  to  the 
Orange  Tories  deeply  shocked  the  real  National- 
ists. Saint  Patrick  founded  Christianity  in  Ire- 
land and  built  the  first  church  at  Armagh,  in  the 
year  445.  The  present  cathedral,  the  see  of  St. 
Patrick,  is  the  grandest  church  in  Ireland,  pre- 
sided over  by  Cardinal  Logue.  I  happened  to  be 
within  its  walls  one  day  in  August  last  when  the 
bells  tolling  overhead  announced  the  death  of  His 
Holiness  Pope  Pius  the  Tenth.  The  Primate  of 
all  Ireland  is  marooned  or  sequestered  under  the 
amending  act,  as  agreed  to  by  Redmond,  to  get 
along  as  best  he  may  or  be  thrown  to  the  Orange 
wolves  of  Antrim  (Belfast).  A  friend  from 
Armagh  writes  that  Redmond  has  been  able  to 
[66] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

secure  only  six  Nationalist  recruits  in  the  town. 
No  country  can  hope  to  be  permanently  pros- 
perous which  is  nearly  or  altogether  dependent  on 
farming.  There  must  be  manufacture  and  com- 
merce to  furnish  life  blood  for  a  nation.  How 
much  would  the  marvellous  efficiency  of  Germany 
count  for  to-day  in  the  world  if  she  relied  alone 
on  intensive  farming.  England,  having  the  ear 
of  the  world,  pleads  she  went  to  war  to  save  the 
small  state  of  Belgium.  Part  of  the  world  for- 
gets she  destroyed  the  last  surviving  republics  in 
Africa,  the  Transvaal  and  the  Orange  Free  State, 
because  of  her  greed  for  the  diamond  mines  and 
the  gold  of  Kimberly  and  Johannesburg.  In  the 
analysis  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill  I  show  that 
Ireland  by  its  terms  is  effectually  stopped  from 
developing  foreign  trade,  and  is  subjected  to  in- 
creased taxation  from  the  burden  of  an  office- 
holding  brigade  without  being  able  to  increase  her 
resources  from  the  profits  of  manufacture  and 
commerce. 


[67] 


CHAPTER  VII 

WHAT  GERMANY  COULD  DO  FOR  IRELAND 

IRELAND,  as  a  free  and  independent  nation,  with 
Germany  as  her  friend  and  ally,  could  be  made 
into  an  important  industrial  country.  There  is 
no  hope  for  an  industrial  Ireland  under  English 
domination.  The  island,  first  of  all,  must  have 
capital  to  develop  railways,  mines,  waterpower 
and  harbors  to  insure  commerce.  And  that  es- 
sential element  English  bankers  will  not  supply; 
so  long  as  Ireland  is  a  West  British  agrarian  col- 
ony no  other  country  will  furnish  money  for  her 
development;  and  her  own  people  are  too  poor 
to  do  it.  The  critics  of  Germany,  since  the  war, 
ridicule  the  constant,  pathetic,  plea  of  German 
kultur.  They  do  not  realize  that  word  has  a  dif- 
ferent meaning  from  "culture"  in  England  or  the 
United  States.  The  German  uses  that  word  to 
define  the  social  organization  and  its  ramifica- 
tions, the  efficiency,  unity,  solidarity  and  thor- 
oughness of  an  organized  people.  The  writer  at- 
tended two  German  schools  in  Syracuse  when  a 
boy  and  was  trained  first  to  think  in  the  German 
[68] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

way.  The  writer  well  remembers  the  first  and 
last  thought  of  the  German  professor  was  to 
teach  the  child  his  lesson  well  and  thoroughly. 
Your  true  German  scholar  is  the  most  scientific 
of  men,  because  he  has  mastered  the  difficult  art 
of  being  thorough. 

England,  eternally  jealous  and  hateful  of  Ire- 
land, has  never  given  her  people  any  chance  for 
scientific  development.  The  door  of  hope  is 
closed  in  this  age  of  specialization  to  the  sons  of 
Ireland.  In  no  sense  could  Ireland  become  an 
economic  or  commercial  rival  of  Germany.  Her 
geographical  position,  the  character  of  her  soil, 
her  language,  and  the  difference  in  her  basic  pro- 
ductions, would  prevent  her  from  becoming  a 
trade  rival  of  Germany.*  The  latter  country 
would  always  want  a  friendly  nation,  just  to  the 

The  Irish  railways  are  owned  by  the  same  capitalists  who 
own  the  English  railways  and  are  interested  in  English  manu- 
factures. Economic  necessity  requires  that  the  Irish  railways 
must  always  be  kept  secondary  to  the  English  lines  and  so  han- 
dled as  to  transport  farm  products.  They  are  rarely  extended 
so  that  factories  or  minerals  might  be  developed  in  Ireland.  The 
concerted  policy  of  England  is  to  destroy  Irish  trans-Atlantic 
passenger  ports  in  the  same  way  they  have  destroyed  Irish 
freighting  direct  to  countries  other  than  England.  All  of  the 
large  Cunard  liners  skip  Queenstown,  and  the  last  large  ship  to 
drop  the  old  port,  from  whence  millions  came  to  this  country, 
was  the  White  Star  liner  Olympic.  In  the  year  1912  the  Liver- 
pool Chamber  of  Commerce  adopted  a  resolution  calling  on 
the  directors  of  the  Cunard  Steamship  Company  to  cut  out  land- 
ing or  stopping  in  Ireland. 

[69] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

left  of  England,  who  could  always  be  counted  on 
as  a  friend  in  time  of  need.  England  only  buys 
from  Germany  what  she  has  to  in  manufactures 
and  things  chemical.  She  must  first  protect  her 
colonies,  who  reciprocate  with  tariff  preferences 
and  trade  agreements.  Ireland,  having  no  col- 
onies, would  be  able  to  trade  on  a  large  scale  with 
Germany  and  the  Continent.  In  many  parts  of 
the  world,  prior  to  the  declarations  of  war,  the 
Hamburg-American  and  the  North  German 
Lloyd  steamship  companies  had  taken  away  from 
English  companies  a  vast  amount  of  trade.  On 
the  shores  of  a  friendly  Ireland,  the  nearest  of 
the  British  isles  to  the  United  States  in  distance, 
on  the  west  coast,  are  wonderfully  situated  bays, 
where  the  harbors  and  docks  could  be  so  im- 
proved that  the  largest  steamers  would  dock. 

England  and  France  held  Belgium,  Japan  and 
Portugal  with  them  as  allies  by  financing  the 
government  and  the  industries  of  those  countries. 
There  is  a  vast  amount  of  English  money  invested 
in  Belgian  industrial  properties.  Under  England 
an  Irish  bond  or  consol  would  not  be  worth  the 
paper  on  which  it  was  written.  But,  Ireland  free, 
and  a  friend  of  Germany,  could  borrow  funds 
from  the  latter  to  develop  her  great  waterpower, 
[70] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

her  commerce  and  industries.  Looking  ahead, 
Germany  would  plainly  see  that  she  would 
insure  her  future  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and 
weaken  England  in  the  struggle  for  the  world's 
trade  by  strengthening  Ireland,  who  would  also 
have  the  aid  of  the  vast  and  prosperous  German 
and  Irish  population  in  the  United  States. 

There  is  no  other  country  in  the  Old  World 
which  could  teach  Ireland  the  things  she  needs 
the  most  in  material  development.  The  economic 
progress  of  Germany  in  the  last  twenty-five 
years  is  the  period  of  the  greatest  development 
of  any  people.  Ireland,  excepting  for  brief 
periods  of  industrial  and  national  freedom,  has 
been  struggling  for  centuries  for  her  economic 
development  in  various  forms,  and  in  the  year 
1915  is  the  poorest  country  on  the  continent. 
Germany,  in  the  short  space  of  twenty-five  years, 
has  become  a  rival  of  the  British  Empire  in  every 
country  in  the  world.  Dr.  Karl  Helfferich,  di- 
rector of  the  Deutsche  Bank,  in  the  view  of  the 
writer,  has  best  expressed  the  German  idea  of 
kultur  in  the  fewest  words. 

The  power  that  creates  and  increases  the  wealth  of 
a  people  is  labor, — from  the  purely  manual  labor  of 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

the  wage-earner  to  the  purely  intellectual  labor  of  the 
scholar. 

The  vehicle  of  labor  is  man,  or — as  regards  the 
whole  state — the  population. 

The  result  of  labor  is  the  production  of  goods. 

The  productivity  of  labor  is  intensified  by  perfect- 
ing technical  equipment  and  organization. 

For  the  people  as  a  whole  the  increased  efficiency 
of  labor  finds  expression  in  the  statistics  of  produc- 
tion, trade,  and  transportation. 

The  final  purpose  of  economic  labor  is  consumption. 

The  surplus  of  goods  produced  over  and  above  the 
necessary  expense  of  production  constitutes  the  in- 
come of  the  people. 

The  surplus  of  the  income  of  the  people  over  their 
consumption  constitutes  the  increment  of  the  public 
well-being. 

The  ideal  economic  development  is  that  a  growing 
population  be  able  to  increase  the  net  efficiency  of  its 
labor,  and  thereby  its  "income,"  to  such  a  degree  that, 
at  the  same  time,  a  higher  standard  of  life — in  other 
words,  a  more  plentiful  satisfaction  of  material  and 
intellectual  wants — and  an  enhancement  of  the  public 
wealth  be  attained. 

Twenty-five  years  is  a  very  short  period  in  the 
life  of  a  nation.  Germany  contained  48,000,000 
people  in  the  year  1888,  at  the  opening  of  the 
present  war  her  population  rose  to  67,000,000. 
Her  excess  of  births  over  deaths  is  800,000  per 
[72] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

annum  and  she  must  find  room  and  livelihood  for 
her  surplus  population. 

The  excess  of  births  over  deaths  in  Germany 
to  every  1,000  inhabitants  is  11  per  cent.,  as  com- 
pared with  9  per  cent,  in  England,  9  per  cent,  in 
America  and  no  excess  in  sterile  France.  To 
meet  this  rapidly  growing  population,  Germany 
has  been  forced  to  find  new  means  of  remunera- 
tive employment.  Her  land  is  very  old,  she  has 
been  compelled  to  study  scientific  and  intensive 
farming,  and  to  acquire  and  make  every  known 
mechanism  to  draw  food  from  the  ground. 

More  wonderful  is  her  development  in  science 
and  in  applying  scientific  knowledge  to  labor. 
She  leads  the  world  in  chemistry  and  physics  and, 
perhaps,  in  electricity,  her  only  real  competitor 
being  the  United  States.  No  country  in  the 
world  has  approached  her  in  substituting  skilled 
labor  for  common  labor.  This  great  change  has 
been  effected  by  machinery.  She  is  foremost  in 
the  world's  development  of  waterpower.  Ger- 
many is  ahead  of  all  other  countries  in  the  use 
of  gas  engines.  Her  motors  are  the  world's 
models.  Liebig,  a  German  chemist,  worked  out 
the  theory  of  fertilizing  soil  which  has  proven 
the  salvation  of  our  older  Southern  States.  In 
[73] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

'dyes,  tars,  acids,  use  of  by-products,  use  of  car- 
bons, processes  of  making  iron  and  steel,  alumi- 
num, treatment  of  wood,  preservatives,  saving 
wastes,  the  whole  world  kneels  at  the  feet  of 
Germany;  and,  in  a  great  degree,  the  ability  of 
England,  through  her  warships,  has  shut  off 
these  indispensable  exports,  thus  increasing  the 
human  misery  and,  in  some  places,  the  starvation 
which  prevails  in  the  United  States  at  present. 

The  trade  schools  of  Germany  have  been  copied 
in  all  lands.  In  co-operative  employment  of 
workingmen,  in  old  age  pensions,  in  working- 
men's  compensation  acts,  in  employers'  liability 
acts  Germany  has  long  led  the  world.  All  of  the 
various  employers'  compensation  measures  in 
American  commonwealths  have  been  founded  on 
German  laws  and  experience.  Her  workingmen 
have  $3,000,000,000  in  savings  banks  and  her 
working  class  supports  the  huge  war  loans. 
Aside  from  her  savings  banks,  the  co-operative 
savings  societies  of  Germany  hold  $6,000,- 
000,000.  One  out  of  every  four  Germans,  male 
or  female,  is  a  wage-earner.  In  sanitation,  in 
public  hygiene,  in  housing  the  people,  she  is  first ; 
whereas,  England  has  more  paupers  than  any 
country  on  the  Continent,  more  people  living  in  a 
[74] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

single  room  than  any  country  in  Europe  or 
America. 

Thirty  years  ago  Germany  had  268,000  thresh- 
ing machines,  to-day  she  has  more  than 
1,000,000;  in  1882  only  19,000  mowing  machines, 
to-day  301,000;  she  led  the  world  in  the  last  few 
years  in  her  harvest  yields  per  acre. 

The  discovery  that  beets  could  be  used  to  make 
sugar  has  cheapened  and  revolutionized  the  pro- 
duction of  sugar;  this  very  important  discovery 
was  made  in  Germany,  which  is  first  in  beet- 
sugar  production.  By  the  year  1912  Germany 
had  overtaken  England  in  the  production  of  coal 
and  was  second  only  to  the  United  States.  She 
is  exceeded  alone  by  our  country  in  the  produc- 
tion of  iron.  In  thirty  years  her  post-office  re- 
ceipts have  jumped  from  $95,000,000  up  to  $394,- 
000,000.  The  Reichsbank  does  a  business  of 
$85,000,000,  the  Deutsche  Bank  of  $30,000,000 
per  annum.  Her  railway  employees  doubled  in 
twenty-five  years.  The  only  country  in  the  world 
to  come  anywhere  near  equalling  her  in  railway 
development  in  twenty-five  years  is  the  United 
States.  Her  inland  waterways  have  reached 
the  vast  sum  of  7,000,000  tons  carrying  capacity. 
In  thirty  short  years  she  has  actually  tripled  her 
[75] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

exports  and  incomes.  Her  nearest  competitor  has 
been  the  United  States.  Yet  in  thirty  years, 
whereas  the  imports  of  the  United  States  have 
increased  137  per  cent.,  the  imports  of  Germany 
gained  244  per  cent. ;  whereas,  the  exports  of  the 
United  States  gained  208  per  cent,  and  Great 
Britain  119  per  cent.,  Germany  increased  her  ex- 
ports 185  per  cent. 

In  spite  of  a  restricted  and  limited  seacoast, 
Germany  has  become  the  second  maritime  power 
on  the  globe.  Her  banking  system  is  the  most 
elastic  and  perfect  in  the  world  and,  considering 
that  the  war  utterly  destroyed  her  foreign  com- 
merce, the  fact  that  there  have  been  no  large 
failures,  no  business  panics  or  widespread  unem- 
ployment and  that  all  of  the  American  corre- 
spondents agree  in  the  statement  that  the  Ger- 
man people,  despite  the  cataclysm,  feel  least  the 
shock  of  any  of  the  belligerents,  we  may  well  con- 
clude that  a  New  Ireland  could  learn  its  most 
useful  lessons  of  progress  from  the  culture  and 
firm  friendship  of  the  Fatherland. 

A  few  days  ago  a  distinguished  United  States 
Senator,  in  the  Senate,  debating  the  Immigration 
Bill,  said: 

Germany  has  been  developed  to  such  a  degree  of 
[76] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

prosperity,  during  forty-four  years  of  the  German 
Empire,  as  to  be  able  to  utterly  change  her  labor  con- 
ditions. In  the  year  1871  two-thirds  of  all  German 
labor  was  common,  the  poorest  paid  labor.  To-day 
two-thirds  of  all  the  labor  in  Germany  is  skilled  labor, 
thrice  the  wages  of  common  labor,  and  only  one-third 
is  common  labor.  The  productiveness  of  Germany  has 
been  enormously  increased,  and  that  has  been  possible, 
in  part,  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  Germany  has  devel- 
oped skilled  labor  and  intellect  to  a  degree  not 
equalled  by  any  country  in  the  world. 

That  statement  remains  uncontroverted,  and  is 
proven  by  the  facts  and  figures  of  the  world's  pro- 
duction and  commerce. 

The  "Home  Rule  Bill  for  Ireland"  does  two 
things,  and  two  only.  One  is  to  fix  her  for  all 
time  as  an  agrarian  country,  with  no  labor  but  the 
poorest  paid  labor  in  the  world,  agricultural  labor. 
The  first  is  economic,  the  second  is  political;  the  last 
gives  Ireland  more  secure  control  over  purely  local 
and  internal  legislation  and  produces  1,400  new  polit- 
ical jobs  for  her  various  politicians.* 

England  has  done  everything  in  its  power  to  make 
war  inevitable. — George  Bernard  Shaw. 

*England  sells  to  Ireland  nearly  $300,000,000  per  year  in  manu- 
factures, which  Ireland  must  pay  back  in  farm  products.  The 
chief  exports  of  Ireland  are  her  children,  her  live  animals,  and 
her  food,  the  three  commodities  needed  most  by  the  country. 
She  sends  her  best  cattle,  hams,  bacon  and  poultry  to  England, 
and  her  healthy  ambitious  boys  and  girls  are  sent  abroad. 


[77] 


CHAPTER  VIII 

HOW  ENGLAND  DESTROYED  IRISH  INDUSTRIES 

THE  Irish  railways  are  not  only  inferior  to 
American  lines,  but  they  are  the  poorest,  the  slow- 
est and  the  costliest  in  Europe.  There  are  three 
or  four  fairly  good  express  trains,  but  in  the 
main  the  service  is  poor  and  would  not  be  tol- 
erated in  the  New  World.  Suffering  for  want  of 
industry,  railroading  or  steam  shipping  does  not 
pay  in  Ireland,  hence  transportation  is  handi- 
capped. Nowhere  in  a  modern  country  is  elec- 
tricity so  far  behind  the  times.  There  are  nu- 
merous waterfalls  and  much  natural  water  power, 
but  that  art  of  harnessing  the  forces  of  nature  is 
practically  unknown  in  Ireland. 

Robert  Kane,  in  his  "Industrial  Resources  of 
Ireland,"  says  that  the  island  contains  great  de- 
posits of  valuable  iron  ore.  England,  as  a  com- 
petitor, prevented  their  development.  All  capi- 
tal, in  large  sums  in  Ireland,  must  be  obtained 
from  London,  and  no  loans  are  made  by  which 
the  mineral  resources  of  the  island  could  be  used. 

Up  to  the  year  1651  iron  was  exported  to  Eng- 
[78] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

land  by  Ireland,  but  prohibited  from  England  by 
law  as  soon  as  English  iron  mines  were  inter- 
fered with  by  Irish  competition.  The  same  fate 
met  Irish  coal  on  the  petition  of  the  Wales  coal- 
mine owners.  As  timber  is  necessary  in  shoring 
mines,  all  the  timber  near  the  mineral  deposits 
was  hewn  and  shipped  abroad.  There  are  70,000 
acres  of  good  quality  of  coal  lands  which  have 
not  been  opened.  Griffith,  geologist,  says  solid, 
workable  coal  is  found  to  the  depth  of  120  fath- 
oms. As  late  as  1846  about  26,000  tons  of  cop- 
per was  produced.  The  clay  in  Ireland  is  ex- 
tensive in  quality  and  deposits.  The  silk*  and 
cordage  industry  flourished  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  was  killed  off  by  arbitrary  tariffs  de- 
signed to  destroy  manufacture. 

In  1640  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  (the 
Governor)  wrote  thus  to  his  King: 

I  am  of  opinion  that  all  wisdom  advises  to  keep  Ire- 
land dependent  on  England  as  long  as  is  possible,  and 
estopped  from  the  manufacture  of  wool. 

Nottingham  said  the  object  of  English  rule  in 

*Anthony  N.  Brady,  of  New  York,  who  died  recently  and  left 
the  colossal  sum  of  more  than  $100,000,000,  was  born  m  France, 
due  to  the  fact  that  his  father  was  an  Irish  silk  weaver  driven 
out  of  Ireland  and  who  secured  employment  at  his  trade  in 
Lyons,  France. 

[79] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Ireland  is  "to  cramp,  obstruct  and  render  abortive 
the  industry  of  the  Irish."  The  Poyning  Act 
compelled  all  vessels  loaded  in  an  Irish  port  to 
proceed  to  an  English  port,  thus  destroying  the 
Irish  merchant  marine.  Various  navigation  acts 
prevented  Irish  vessels  from  having  direct  Conti- 
nental trade.  Cattle  could  be  killed  in  Ireland, 
but  the  carcass  must  be  sent  to  England.  Acts 
of  Parliament  destroyed  a  once  great  wool  in- 
dustry by  requiring  the  sheep  to  be  sent  to  Eng- 
land, and  the  price  of  wool  to  be  fixed  in  London. 

Barlow's  "Ireland"  says: 

Deprived  of  the  means  of  subsistence  at  home, 
thousands  of  Irish  manufacturers  emigrated  to  France 
and  other  countries,  where  they  assisted  the  inhabi- 
tants in  the  augmentation  and  improvement  of  the 
quality  of  woollen  goods.  Another  arbitrary  measure 
excluded  Ireland  from  trading  with  any  British  colony. 
Irish  fishermen  were  prohibited  from  sending  their 
boats  off  to  the  banks  of  Newfoundland. 

Adam  Smith,  the  political  economist,  said: 

To  prohibit  a  great  nation  from  making  all  that  they 
can  of  their  own  produce  or  industry  is  a  manifest 
violation  of  the  most  sacred  rights  of  mankind. 

In  1867  Lord  Duffer  in  wrote: 
From  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  England  never 
[80] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

for  a  moment  relaxed  her  relentless  grip  on  the  trades 
of  Ireland.  One  by  one  her  industries  were  strangled 
until  at  last  every  fountain  of  wealth  was  hermetically 
sealed. 

Last  fall  the  writer  attended  in  Dublin  a  so- 
called  National  Exhibition  of  Irish  Industries. 
The  real  Irish  showing  was  pitiful — scarcely  a 
single  article  of  industry  shown,  aside  from 
agriculture,  raw  material  or  minerals,  was  made 
in  Ireland.  All  wares  bore  English  or  Continental 
trade-marks. 

And  yet  during  the  brief  period  of  Irish  inde- 
pendence, from  1782  to  1802,  the  commerce  and 
industry  of  Ireland  prospered.  In  1798  the  Earl 
of  Clare  said  proudly,  "There  is  not  a  nation  on 
the  face  of  the  globe  which  has  advanced  in  man- 
ufactures with  the  same  rapidity."  Her  silks, 
cottons,  fabrics,  hats,  soap,  flannels,  leather  and 
other  industries  rose  by  leaps  and  bounds,  amaz- 
ing the  industrial  world,  until  the  relentless  an- 
tagonism of  England  was  aroused,  and  the  con- 
queror again  set  at  the  fell  work  of  destroying 
her  competing  neighbor. 


[81] 


CHAPTER  IX 
IRELAND'S  COMMERCE 

"Every  Irishman  owes  it  to  his  country,  his 
race,  and  the  world  to  work  for  the  break-up  of 
the  British  World  Dominion.  Either  the  Em- 
pire or  Ireland  must  die.  Until  the  Irish  the 
world  over  get  it  into  their  heads  that  Ireland 
is  NOW,  as  during  the  past  750  years,  fighting 
for  her  very  life  against  an  unscrupulous  and 
implacable  enemy  the  cause  of  Ireland  is  hope- 
less"—JOHN  F.  KELLY,  PH.D. 

IN  INVESTIGATING  an  important  or  prosperous 
country  one  is  confronted  at  once  with  a  mass  of 
valuable  governmental  data  and  a  great  variety 
of  business  works  and  reliable  statistics.  So  few 
factories  are  there  in  most  of  Ireland,  so  little 
commerce,  so  few  people  directly  interested  in  the 
subject,  that,  the  government  indifferent  or  neg- 
ligent, with  only  exceeding  difficulty  do  we 
secure  late  or  reliable  data.  When  you  go  into 
the  great  bookstores  of  America,  which  advertise 
"Irish  books,  great  variety,"  you  will  rarely  find 
a  volume  on  an  Irish  commercial  subject.  There 
will  be  mostly  fiction,  written  from  the  English, 
[82] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

the  wrong  point  of  view,  descriptions  of  ruins 
and  scenery,  fairy  tales,  ballad  poetry,  drama  and 
sketches  of  Irish  life.  In  dealing  with  this  chap- 
ter we  have  to  do  the  best  we  can  within  narrow 
but  certain  limits  of  information. 

The  linen  industry  is  the  most  important,  and 
its  survival  was  due  originally  chiefly  to  the 
superior  quality  of  the  flax  sown  on  the  fertile 
fields  of  Ireland.  This  industry  is  controlled 
by  descendants  of  the  invaders  of  the  middle 
century,  who  drove  the  natives  away  from 
that  section  of  the  country  into  the  bogs  and 
mountains  of  the  west.  They  have  built  up  the 
important  city  of  Belfast,  which  has  become  the 
largest  town,  containing,  with  its  suburbs,  some 
500,000  inhabitants.  The  place  is  busy  but 
gloomy,  and  contains  only  one  beautiful  building, 
the  City  Hall.  As  a  "loyal  city,"  in  the  year  1637 
it  won  over  Dublin  the  privilege  of  levying  special 
duties  on  goods  against  the  rest  of  Ireland,  and 
that  act  of  favoritism  made  it  a  seaport.  It  is 
naturally  badly  located  as  compared  with  a  dozen 
harbors  in  Ireland,  which  have  no  commerce,  but 
the  ingenuity  of  man  is  employed  to  make  up,  in 
part,  the  natural  deficiencies.  Last  year  some 
30,000  ships  entered  or  cleared  the  harbor,  carry- 
[83] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

ing  3,500,000  tons.  All  the  rest  of  Ireland 
cleared  about  20,000  ships  and  not  more  than 
2,500,000  tons.  The  largest  single  industry  is 
the  great  shipbuilding  works  of  Messrs.  Harland 
&  Wolff,  employing  12,000  workmen.  I  noticed 
the  great  new  ship  Britannic,  over  50,000  tons, 
in  the  water  last  September.  It  will  be  too  large 
to  dock  at  Queenstown.  As  the  large  ships  often 
skip  Ireland,  one  can  readily  see  how  the  com- 
merce of  the  country  is  affected.  Some  of  the 
docks  in  Belfast  are  nearly  900  feet  long.  Very 
little  of  the  capital  operating  any  of  the  great  in- 
dustries is  Nationalist,  which  section  is  discrim- 
inated against  in  promotions  and  in  the  skilled 
trades. 

The  Irish  Sea  fisheries  are  very  valuable,  but 
the  profitable  method  of  deep-sea  fishing  is  to  use 
steam  trawlers,  too  costly  a  vessel  for  the  native 
fisherman  to  buy,  and  the  salmon  industry  is, 
therefore,  neglected.  Fifty  years  ago  the  Irish 
fisheries  employed  56,000  men;  now  the  number 
is  not  more  than  24,000,  and  the  business  has 
passed  over  largely  to  Scotland  and  England.  The 
Irish  salmon  sold  last  year  was  not  more  than 
$900,000,  yet  there  is  no  finer  salmon  in  the  world. 
The  coast  abounds  in  herring  and  mackerel,  but 
[84] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

lack  of  capital,  organization,  and  the  entrance  of 
steam  trawlers  have  caused  its  decline.  In  the 
year  1870  the  cotton  mills  employed  about  6,000 
hands.  The  industry  is  nearly  dead,  scarcely  500 
men  being  employed,  the  business  having  passed 
over  to  Lancashire. 

The  Irish  woollen  industry  within  a  century 
was  larger  than  the  linen  industries,  and  its  disap- 
pearance virtually  sounded  the  death-knell  of 
Irish  manufacturing  hopes,  when  1,200  of  her 
weavers  emigrated  to  Philadelphia  in  1870.  The 
English  manufacturers  of  woollens,  alarmed  by 
the  popularity  of  Irish  woollens  throughout  the 
continent,  prevailed  on  Parliament,  as  I  have 
stated  before,  to  pass  an  act  prohibiting  Ireland 
from  sending  woollens  abroad  ( see  Encyclopedia 
Americana,  Vol.  IX,  Ireland).  The  brewing 
and  distilling  business  is  the  second  largest  indus- 
try and  its  preservation  is  due  to  the  unique  qual- 
ity of  fresh  water.  It  is  the  chief  industry  of 
Dublin.  The  laces  and  embroideries  are  largely 
manufactured  in  private  homes  by  cottage  women. 

The  exports  from  Ireland  direct  to  foreign 

ports  is  reduced  to  some  $6,500,000  ( 1910) ,  while 

the  imports  were  some  $54,000,000.    With  such  a 

balance  of  trade  against  her,  Ireland  must  con- 

[85] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

tinue  to  suffer  until  she  has  manufactures  to  send 
abroad  and  bring  back  money. 

Mr.  John  F.  Kelly,  Ph.D.,  of  Pittsfield,  Mass., 
is  furnishing  a  series  of  able  letters  for  the  Irish 
World  on  the  subject  of  Irish  industrial  de- 
cline. Mr.  Kelly  has  sent  the  writer  a  copy  of  a 
pamphlet  entitled  "A  Plea  for  the  Industrial  Re- 
generation of  Ireland,"  by  Dr.  Robert  Ambrose, 
member  of  Parliament.  As  this  writer  has  made 
a  close  analysis  of  the  industrial  and  commercial 
necessities  and  possibilities  of  Ireland,  it  is  pos- 
sible to  use  his  data  and  argument. 

The  water  power  of  Ireland,  the  greatest  in 
Europe  in  area,  and  the  cheapest  power  for  fac- 
tory purposes,  is  wholly  undeveloped.  The  people 
burn  peat  from  the  bogs  for  fuel,  for,  although 
coal  exists,  it  is  not  mined.  By  extracting  the 
moisture  from  the  peat,  through  a  German  process 
invented  in  1897  (Stemmler),  peat  fuel  could  be 
used  for  manufacturing.  Ireland  contains  iron, 
copper  and  coal.  What  is  it,  then,  inquires  Dr. 
Ambrose,  that  keeps  Ireland  poor,  and  how  can 
she  give  employment  to  her  own  children?  He 
answers  the  great  question  with  singular  felicity, 
and  we  cannot  improve  on  his  words : 

"There  are  two  conditions  absolutely  necessary 
[86] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

for  the  full  development  of  the  resources  of  any 
country.  First,  the  fostering  care  of  a  native 
government  elected  by  and  responsible  to  the  pub- 
lic opinion  of  that  country.  Second,  free  and  un- 
fettered opportunities  to  trade  with  whomsoever 
that  country  wishes.  Any  country  that  is  wanting 
in  either  of  those  two  conditions  is  bound  to  go 
to  the  wall.  Ireland  is  wanting  in  both.  She  has 
neither  the  blessings  of  the  fostering  care  of  a 
native  government  nor  the  free  and  unfettered 
opportunities  of  trading  with  whomsoever  she 
likes.  Therefore  Ireland  has  gone  to  the  wall." 

By  what  standard  can  you  judge  of  the  pros- 
perity of  a  country? 

1.  By  the  standard  of  living. 

2.  By  its  commerce  and  carrying  power. 

3.  By  its  export  trade — 

(a)  In  manufactures. 

(b)  In  surplus  produce. 

These  are  fair  tests  of  the  prosperity  of  a  coun- 
try. In  the  standard  of  living  the  people  of  Ire- 
land are  below  the  average  on  the  continent.  The 
low  cost  of  their  maintenance  or  subsistence  per 
diem  proves  indubitably  the  force  of  this  state- 
ment. Ireland  exports  considerable  foodstuffs, 
[87] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

although  small  per  capita.  All  political  econo- 
mists agree  that  it  is  a  bad  sign  when  a  country 
is  compelled  to  export  the  most  and  the  best  of 
its  food.  For  every  dollar  of  exports,  Ireland  im- 
ports eight  or  ten  dollars,  for  want  of  manufac- 
tures, and  no  advocate  claims,  in  any  way,  that 
the  proposed  Home  Rule  Bill  will  materially  de- 
velop the  foreign  trade  or  manufactures  of  Ire- 
land. It  means  that  the  people  must  use  an  in- 
ferior quality  of  products,  and  give  to  the  world 
their  best  hams,  bacons,  flax,  lace,  cattle  and  but- 
ter. They  must  deny  themselves  of  their  own 
finest  products  and  must  sell  their  best  to  provide 
the  necessaries  of  life. 

We  spent  nearly  nine  hours  on  the  Irish  rail- 
way, 170  miles,  reaching  Limerick  from  Sligo,  a 
town  of  40,000  inhabitants,  the  city  being  the 
centre  of  the  vale,  in  the  heart  of  one  of  the 
most  fertile  farming  sections  of  the  world, 
where  it  seemed  as  though  every  acre  of  green 
land  could  raise  a  wondrous  crop,  and  yet  here  is 
a  brief  resume  of  the  facts  and  figures  of  Lim- 
erick commerce : 

In  1852  the  foreign  tonnage  at  the  port  of 
Limerick  amounted  to  124,419  tons,  and  the 
British  and  coasting  trade  to  90,002  tons,  making 
[88] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

a  total  of  214,421  tons.  At  the  present  time  there 
is  no  government  report  of  Limerick  foreign  ton- 
nage, because  it  is  reduced  to  nothing  and  not 
worth  recording,  and  yet  there  is  no  finer  city  in 
Ireland,  aside  from  Dublin  and  Belfast.  In  the 
year  1854  the  customs  collected  at  Limerick  the 
sum  of  $815,000,  and  101  ships  registered  from 
this  port.  Seventy  years  ago  the  foreign  exports 
from  Limerick  amounted  to  $6,000,000.  The  city 
then  had  several  foundries,  leather  factories, 
soap,  hat,  hardware,  glove,  comb,  linen,  cotton 
factories,  two  paper  mills,  salt  works,  lace  mill 
and  twenty  flour  mills.  All  these  plants  have 
practically  vanished. 

The  port  of  Galway  had  a  large  tonnage  at  one 
time;  nothing  left  to-day.  In  1851  Galway  con- 
tained fifty-four  factories.  As  far  back  as  1835 
the  town  was  busy  with  cotton  and  muslin  works, 
exports  in  that  year  amounting  to  $1,250,000.  All 
these  industries  have  been  transferred  to  Eng- 
land. 

Waterford  is  the  place  which  sends  Mr.  Red- 
mond to  the  British  House  of  Commons.  Decay 
set  in  long  ago,  and  the  industries  are  in  ruins. 
The  woollen  mills  are  no  more.  At  one  period 
there  existed  a  cotton  mill,  eleven  miles  from  the 
[89] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

place,  which  employed  1,800  persons.  The  raw 
cotton  spun  exceeded  2,000,000  pounds  per  year. 
The  mill  made  6,000,000  yards  of  bleached  calico 
prints  a  year.  The  product  of  the  mill  was  sent 
to  foreign  countries,  but  first  through  an  English 
port.  A  famous  glass  works  was  in  operation 
from  1783  up  to  1852.  The  five  shipyards  have 
been  vacated.  In  the  year  1813,  Water  ford  ex- 
ported to  foreign  lands  goods  in  the  large  sum 
of  $11,000,000.  As  late  as  the  year  1835  the 
trade,  exports  and  imports,  amounted  to  $16,- 
700,000.  New  Ross  sent  twenty-seven  merchant 
ships  from  her  port  in  1851 ;  not  one  is  left.  The 
foreign  trade  of  Wexford  footed  up  $4,000,000 
in  1835.  The  yarn  market  and  linen  hall  have 
been  destroyed. 

In  1852  the  foreign  trade  of  Sligo  amounted  to 
$2,000,000;  of  Coleraine,  $850,000;  of  Tralee, 
$250,000.  Skibbereen,  an  interesting  town  in  the 
County  Cork,  visited  recently  by  the  writer,  is 
without  commerce  or  industry,  as  formerly.  At 
one  period  industry  was  flourishing.  The  exports 
in  1835  amounted  to  $200,000. 

CORK 

Cork  was  a  flourishing  city  as  late  as  1852. 
She  had  a  foreign  trade  of  184,678  tons  and  a 
[90] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

coasting  trade  of  472,701  tons,  consisting  of  a 
fleet  of  409  vessels.  Some  260  clerks  were  em- 
ployed collecting  the  duties.  The  mills  made 
woollens,  canvas,  sheetings,  leather  and  shirts. 
One  firm  employed  1,000  hands  making  silk  and 
lace.  There  were  seven  iron  foundries,  two  brass 
mills,  five  shovel  factories,  and  two  ship  yards. 
One  of  the  first  iron  ships  was  built  at  Cork.  In 
1835  the  trade  in  and  out  of  the  port  footed  up  to 
$28,000,000. 

In  1835  the  exports  from  Youghal  were  esti- 
mated at  $1,300,000.  As  late  as  the  year  1851 
this  port  had  registered  574  vessels.  There  is 
scarcely  anything  remaining  of  this  commerce. 
In  the  year  1852  Westport  possessed  a  foreign 
trade  of  about  20,000  tons,  and  a  domestic  trade 
of  8,000  tons,  and  46  vessels  were  employed ;  the 
customs  amounted  to  $650,000.  Ballina  was  an- 
other important  port;  its  business  is  now  quite 
dead. 

In  the  year  1853  Newry  had  a  trade  of  178,000 
tons.  There  were  two  spinning  mills,  costing 
$1,750,000.  The  ships  of  Newry  sailed  the  Baltic, 
Mediterranean  Sea,  and  were  driven  from  the 
seas  by  a  law  which  required  them  to  reship  and 
land  at  English  ports.  The  exports  in  1835 
[91] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

amounted  to  $4,200,000,  the  imports  to  $2,- 
800,000.  Dundalk  in  the  year  1853  had  a  trade  of 
147,000  tons,  with  28  regular  ships,  customs 
$192,000,  cotton  mills  employing  2,000  hands. 
The  goods  of  Dundalk  were  carried  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, Riga,  Dantzic,  Rotterdam,  Oporto  and 
German  ports.  Drogheda  had  a  trade  of  260,000 
tons  in  1852,  and  shipbuilding  works,  while  thirty- 
five  pilots  worked  out  from  that  port.  An  iron 
foundry  employed  300  men.  The  exports  from 
Drogheda  in  the  year  1835  amounted  to  $3,830,000 
and  the  imports  to  $1,280,000. 

DUBLIN 

In  the  year  1852  the  shipping  trade  of  Dublin 
amounted  to  1,591,118  tons,  with  464  vessels,  cus- 
toms $4,670,000,  and  was  the  chief  silk  manufac- 
turing city  of  Great  Britain.  There  were  28  iron 
and  21  brass  foundries,  long  since  disappeared. 
There  were  114  cut-glass  works,  43  carriage  fac- 
tories, 21  paper  mills,  18  hat  factories  and  168 
various  manufactures. 

The  writer  has  visited  all  of  the  cities  of 

America  and  many  foreign  cities.    Of  the  large 

towns  seen,  beyond  a  doubt  the  capital  of  Ireland 

is  the  poorest,  the  most  squalid  and  miserable. 

[92] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

The  only  interesting  things  about  Dublin  are  the 
ruins  of  its  former  greatness,  the  cemeteries, 
parks  and  decaying  structures.  The  monuments 
to  the  dead  are  notable.  There  is  scarcely  a  ripple 
on  the  Liffey  aside  from  some  boats  from  a  brew- 
ery. Fifty  years  more  will  see  Dublin  altogether 
an  English  city.  The  cockney  songs  of  the  Lon- 
don music  halls  are  the  favorites,  and  the  bal- 
lad poetry  of  Ireland  is  disappearing,  the  street 
crowds  have  come  to  resemble  the  poor  of  Lon- 
don, and  the  patriots  are  harried.  Many  of  the 
young  politicians,  the  door  of  industry  long  closed, 
are  secretly  or  openly  endeavoring  to  get  on  the 
payroll  of  Dublin  Castle  or  in  the  civil  service, 
and  that  clever  Irish  politician  and  organizer, 
Joseph  Devlin,  and  his  practical  henchman,  Nu- 
gent, have  landed  many  of  them  there. 

To  sum  up,  under  English  misrule,  the  foreign 
trade  of  Ireland  in  sixty  years  has  dwindled  to 
a  pitiful  figure,  so  that  to-day  Ireland  has  prac- 
tically no  commerce.  How  horrible  is  the  betrayal 
of  a  decimated,  stricken  people  by  job-seeking 
leaders,  who  would  destroy  the  remnants  in  order 
that  their  oppressors  might  be  delivered  from  the 
vengeance  of  Germany! 

During  this  period  the  trade  of  England  in- 
]93] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

creased  to  nearly  70,000,000  tons.  The  exports 
of  little  Holland  last  year,  scarcely  1,000,000 
more  inhabitants  than  Ireland,  amounted  nearly 
to  a  billion  dollars;  stricken  Belgium  to 
$680,000,000. 

As  Ireland  has  little  manufacturing  outside  of 
the  northeast  corner  of  the  country,  the  various 
preferential  tariff  rates  of  the  British  colonies 
benefit  England  alone.  As  long  as  the  control  of 
factories  and  shipping  lies  in  English  hands,  no 
treaty  or  preferential  system  of  duties  can  hope 
to  benefit  Ireland.  Her  products  are  chiefly  farm 
products,  hams,  bacon,  eggs  and  poultry,  which 
are  shipped  to  England,  a  class  of  products  which 
are  not  shipped  abroad  and  exchanged  for  the 
products  of  British  colonies  favored  by  special 
tariff  rates.  The  people  of  Ireland  can  only  make 
arrangements  as  middle-men  and  ship  their  prod- 
ucts outside  of  England  by  indirection,  through 
Liverpool  or  other  English  channels. 

In  studying  the  commerce  of  Ireland  and  con- 
trasting the  returns  of  the  year  1913  with  Ger- 
many, we  find  that  on  an  average  the  business 
done  by  the  average  four  inhabitants  of  Germany 
is  equal  to  the  commercial  results  of  thirty-nine 
Irishmen.  In  Holland,  a  small  country,  the 
[94] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

wealth  per  capita  is  six  times  as  great  as  Ireland. 
The  English  profess  to  despise  the  Turks,  yet  the 
average  son  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  possesses 
more  of  the  world's  goods  than  the  Celt.  The 
Irish  prosper  in  all  countries  save  and  excepting 
Ireland. 

There  is  no  chance  for  real  Irish  prosperity 
under  English  rule,  unless  the  yoke  of  bondage  is 
thrown  off  and  the  nation  becomes  free  and  inde- 
pendent and  works  out  her  destiny,  with  the  aid 
of  her  successful  sons  and  daughters  throughout 
the  world,  and  establishes  a  friendly  alliance  with 
a  country  which  is  not  a  natural  or  logical  rival 
and  is  not  interested  in  her  exploitation. 

Let  not  the  patriots  remain  discouraged.  The 
watch  fires  of  liberty  burn  for  centuries. 

The  nations  have  fallen  and  thou  art  still  young, 
Thy  sun  is  just  rising  when  others  have  set, 

And  though  slavery's  cloud  o'er  thy  morning  has  hung, 
The  full  moon  of  freedom  shall  beam  on  thee  yet. 


[95] 


When  the  German  gunners  fired  the  shots  which 
struck  the  tower  of  the  Cathedral  at  Rheims,  that  act 
was  denounced  as  an  Atrocity,  although  the  army  sig- 
nal scouts  of  the  Allies  occupied  the  tower. 

When  the  American  gunners  made  the  "beautiful 
shot"  which  struck  the  unoccupied  tower  of  the  ancient 
church  at  Vera  Cruz,  Mexico,  who  in  the  United  States 
cried  out — Atrocity? 


[96] 


CHAPTER  X 

ENGLISH  ATROCITIES  IN  IRELAND 

A  FEW  days  after  the  taking  of  Louvain,  Belgium, 
by  the  German  army,  I  met  a  Roman  Catholic 
bishop  in  Ireland,  on  the  road  from  Dublin  to 
Belfast.  He  was  a  strong  character  and  a  great 
prelate,  at  the  head  of  an  important  diocese.  The 
only  news  of  the  alleged  atrocities  at  Louvain 
the  earnest  bishop  had  taken  from  the  Dublin 
Freeman's  Journal  and  the  Belfast  News-Letter. 
The  news  turned  out  to  be  false,  as  we  have 
learned  from  the  American  newspaper  correspon- 
dents who  visited  the  scene.  In  Ireland,  of  course, 
no  correction  of  the  horrible  falsehoods  about 
German  barbarisms  have  been  made,  and  many 
natives  actually  believe  stories  of  atrocities  long 
since  exploded  in  this  country.  The  German 
atrocity  game  in  the  United  States  died  with  the 
return  in  October  of  Irving  S.  Cobb,  of  the  Sat- 
urday Evening  Post;  John  T.  McCutcheon,  of  the 
Chicago  Tribune;  James  O'Donnell  Bennett,  and 
the  denials  of  the  Associated  Press  and  United 
Press  correspondents.  But  the  good  bishop  of 
[97] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Ireland  swallowed  the  story,  and,  in  righteous  in- 
dignation, said  he  would  publicly  denounce  the 
German  Huns  and  Vandals  on  the  morrow.  Lou- 
vain  is  a  spot  of  tender  memories  in  the  Irish 
heart,  and  the  English  newspaper  tricksters  well 
knew  their  advantage  in  the  references  to  "out- 
rages" at  Louvain. 

The  writer  was  reminded  of  the  fact  that  the 
existence  of  an  Irish  seminary  at  Louvain  was 
merely  another  historic  evidence  of  the  days  when 
the  English  conquerors,  under  Cromwell,  offered 
a  reward  of  $25  for  the  head  of  every  priest  and 
$25,  the  same  rate,  for  the  head  of  wolves. 

The  priests  were  hunted  like  wild  beasts,  and, 
in  order  to  maintain  a  seminary,  they  were  forced 
to  flee  to  the  shelter  of  Louvain.  We  asked  the 
bishop  if  the  worst  charged  at  Louvain  were  true, 
could  Belgium  approach  the  horrors  of  Dro- 
gheda,  Ireland,  under  the  reign  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well. 

Matthew  Carey,  a  reliable  historian,  writes : 

Of  all  the  cases  of  murderous  cruelty  that  marked 
the  career  of  the  government  in  Ireland,  the  most 
atrocious  occurred  at  the  surrender  of  Drogheda.  The 
history  of  the  Huns,  Vandals,  Goths  and  Ostragoths 
may  be  searched  in  vain  for  anything  more  shocking. 
[98] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Cromwell  had  besieged  this  town  for  some  time,  and 
was  finally  admitted  on  promise  of  quarter.  The  gar- 
rison consisted  of  the  flower  of  the  Irish  army,  and 
might  have  beaten  him  back,  had  they  not  been  se- 
duced by  his  solemn  promise  of  mercy,  which  was 
observed  till  the  whole  had  laid  down  their  arms. 
Then  he  commanded  his  soldiers  to  begin  the  slaugh- 
ter of  the  entire  garrison,  which  slaughter  continued 
for  five  days  with  every  circumstance  of  brutal  and 
sanguinary  violence  that  the  most  cruel  savages  could 
conceive  or  perpetrate. 

Lest  the  above  sentences  may  be  considered 
some  exaggeration,  here  follows  an  extract  from 
the  official  report  to  London,  signed  by  Oliver 
Cromwell : 

It  has  pleased  God  to  bless  our  endeavors  at  Dro- 
gheda.  I  wish  that  all  honest  hearts  may  give  the 
glory  of  this  to  God  alone,  to  whom  indeed  the  praise 
of  this  mercy  belongs.  I  believe  we  put  to  the  sword 
the  whole  number  of  the  defenders.  I  do  not  think 
thirty  of  the  whole  number  escaped  with  their  lives, 
those  that  did  are  in  safe  custody  for  the  Barbadoes. 

Broudine  says  that  children  at  the  breasts  of 
mothers  and  the  aged  were  murdered.    In  Wex- 
f  ord  two  thousand  men,  women  and  children  were 
slaughtered  in  the  streets  of  the  town.. 
[99] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

THE  WEXFORD  MASSACRE 

They  knelt  around  the  cross  divine, 

The  matron  and  the  maid — 
They  bow'd  before  redemption's  sign 

And  fervently  they  prayed — 
Three  hundred  fair  .and  helpless  ones, 

Whose  crime  was  this  alone — 
Their  valiant  husbands,  sires,  and  sons 

Had  battled  for  their  own. 

Had  battled  bravely,  but  in  vain — 

The  Saxon  won  the  fight, 
And  Irish  corpses  strewed  the  plain 

Where  Valor  slept  with  Right. 
And  now,  that  Man  of  demon  guilt, 

To  fated  Wexford  flew — 
The  red  blood  reeking  on  his  hilt, 

Of  hearts  to  Erin  true ! 

He  found  them  there — the  young,  the  old — 

The  maiden  and  the  wife; 
Their  guardians,  brave  in  death,  were  cold, 

Who  dared  for  them  the  strife. 
They  prayed  for  mercy — God  on  high 

Before  they  cross  they  prayed, 
And  ruthless  Cromwell  bade  them  die 

To  glut  the  Saxon  blade ! 

Three  hundred  fell — the  stifled  prayer 
Was  quenched  in  woman's  blood; 

[100] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Nor  youth  nor  age  could  move  to  spare 

From  slaughter's  crimson  flood. 
But  nations  keep  a  stern  account 

Of  deeds  that  tyrants  do; 
And  guiltless  blood  to  Heaven  will  mount 

And  Heaven  avenge  it,  too ! 

Three  thousand  men,  women  and  children,  of  all 
ranks  and  ages,  took  refuge  in  the  Cathedral  of  Cashel, 
hoping  the  Temple  of  the  living  God  would  afford 
them  a  sanctuary  from  the  butcheries  that  were  laying 
the  whole  country  desolate.  The  barbarian  Ireton 
forced  the  gates  of  the  church,  and  let  loose  his  blood- 
hounds among  them,  who  soon  convinced  them  how 
vain  was  their  reliance  on  the  temple  or  the  altar  of 
God.  They  were  slaughtered  without  discrimination. 
Neither  rank,  dignity  nor  character  saved  the  noble- 
man, the  bishop  or  the  priest ;  nor  decrepitude  nor  his 
hoary  head,  the  venerable  sage  bending  down  into  the 
grave ;  nor  her  charms,  the  virgin ;  nor  her  virtues,  the 
respectable  matron;  nor  its  helplessness,  the  smiling 
infant.  Butchery  was  the  order  of  the  day,  and  all 
shared  the  common  fate. — Carey,  p.  351. 

In  the  Sydney  papers,  London,  1746,  is  given 
an  account  of  Sir  Richard  Cox's  services  in  Ire- 
land, where  he  makes  the  following  boast : 

As  to  the  enemy,   I  used  them  like  nettles,   and 
squeezed  them  (I  mean  their  vagabond  partyes)  soe 
hard,  that  they  could  seldom  sting ;  having,  as  I  believe, 
[101] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

killed  and  hanged  no  less  than  three  thousand  of  them, 
whilst  I  stayed  in  the  County  of  Cork ;  and  taken  from 
them  in  cattle  and  plunder,  at  least  to  the  value  of 
twelve  thousand  pounds,  which  you  will  easily  believe, 
when  you  know  that  I  divided  three  hundred  and  eigh- 
ty pounds  between  one  troop  (Colonel  Townsend's) 
in  the  beginning  of  August.  After  which  Colonel 
Beecher  and  the  western  gentlemen  got  a  prey  worth 
three  thousand  pounds,  besides  several  other  lesser 
preys,  taken  by  small  partyes,  that  are  not  taken  notice 
of  &c. 

Lord  Clare  stated  that  11,697,629  acres  had 
been  confiscated  in  Ireland,  as  follows: 
Forfeited  up  to  the  close  of  James  I's  reign  2,836,837 
Forfeited  up  to  close  of  Charles  II's  reign  7,800,000 
Forfeited  at  the  revolution 1,060,792 


Total 11,697,629 

So  that  the  whole  of  our  island  has  been  confiscated, 
with  the  exception  of  the  estates  of  five  or  six  families 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  who  recovered  their  pos- 
sessions before  Tyrone's  rebellion  and  had  the  good 
fortune  to  escape  the  pillage  of  the  English  republic 
inflicted  by  Cromwell;  and  no  inconsiderable  portion 
of  the  Island  had  been  confiscated  twice,  or  perhaps 
thrice,  in  the  course  of  the  century.  .  .  .  The  situa- 
tion, therefore,  of  the  Irish  nation  at  the  revolution, 
stands  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the  inhabited 
world. 

[102] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

The  writer  thought  it  more  than  passing 
strange  in  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies  to  find 
black,  brown  and  yellow  men  with  such  pro- 
nounced Celtic  names  as  O'Brien,  Brady,  Mc- 
Carthy and  O'Neil,  many  of  them  speaking  only 
the  Spanish  or  mixed  native  tongues,  only  to 
learn  they  were  descendants  of  expatriated  Irish, 
sent  to  the  West  Indies  as  slaves  by  the  English, 
and,  as  the  stock  had  run  out,  gradually  took  up 
with  and  married  the  native  women  of  mixed 
bloods.  During  the  Cromwellian  period  a  hun- 
dred thousand  and  more  Irish  children  were 
taken  from  their  parents,  put  in  chains  and  trans- 
ported in  the  fetid  holes  of  slave  ships  to  labor 
as  slaves  on  the  tropical  plantations  of  the  Eng- 
lish West  Indian  colonists.  Thirty  thousand 
were  sold  to  the  American  colonists.  Stations 
were  established  in  Ireland  where  these  unfortu- 
nates were  confined  before  being  sold  into 
slavery. 

Ireland  must  have  exhibited  scenes  in  every 
part  like  the  slave  hunts  in  Africa.  How  many 
girls  of  gentle  birth  must  have  been  caught  and 
hurried  to  the  private  prisons  of  these  men- 
catchers  none  can  tell.  We  are  told  of  one  case. 
Daniel  Connery,  a  gentleman  of  Clare,  was  sen- 
[103] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

tenced,  in  Morrison's  presence,  to  banishment,  in 
1657,  by  Colonel  Henry  Ingoldsby,  for  harboring 
a  priest.  "This  gentleman  had  a  wife  and  twelve 
children.  His  wife  fell  sick  and  died  in  poverty. 
Three  of  his  daughters,  beautiful  girls,  were 
transferred  to  the  West  Indies,  to  an  island  called 
the  Barbadoes;  and  there,  if  still  alive  (he  says), 
they  are  miserable  slaves." 

In  1653  slave  contracts  to  supply  Irish  girls 
were  entered  into  by  English  army  officers. 
Cromwell  suggested  that  boys  between  the  ages 
of  twelve  and  fourteen  be  seized.  A  contract  was 
made  for  1,000  boys  and  1,000  slave  girls  to  be 
transported  from  Galway  in  October,  1655. 

No  age  was  spared,  no  sex,  no  degree ; 
Nor  infants  in  the  porch  of  life  were  free; 
The  sick,  the  old,  who  could  but  hope  a  day. 

Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  one  of  the  most  careful 
of  historians,  states  "to  kill  an  Irishman  on  sight 
was  not  unlawful." 

THE  TREATY  OF  LIMERICK 

The  writer  stood  near  the  Treaty  Stone  of  Lim- 
erick early  one  morning  in  September  last  listen- 
ing to  some  market  men  denouncing  the  Germans 
for  the  violation  of  the  treaty  with  Belgium. 
[104] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

History  must  either  deny  or  justify  the  contention 
of  Germany  that  the  march  across  the  Belgian 
frontier  was  rendered  necessary  by  conditions 
which  are  being  discussed  at  present  in  the  heat 
of  awful  passion,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  the  writer, 
the  hour  has  not  come  to  argue  the  case  with  the 
spirit  or  intelligence  necessary  to  form  a  fair 
judgment.  But  the  broken  Treaty  of  Limerick 
is  a  frightful  historic  fact,  and  there  in  the  heart 
of  the  city,  close  to  the  beautiful  flowing  river 
Shannon,  stands  the  memorial,  and  lodged  on 
the  uppermost  square  of  the  structure  is  the  stone. 
The  inscription  reads: 

THE  TREATY  OF  LIMERICK 
Signed  A.D.  1681 

The  other  monument  in  Limerick  is  the  statue 
of  General  Patrick  Sarsfield,  one  of  the  great 
heroes  of  Ireland  and  foremost  soldiers  of 
Europe.  Ireland,  unfortunately,  had  taken  the 
side  of  the  weak  King  James,  who  was  defeated 
by  King  William,  a  native  of  Holland,  who  spoke 
no  English.  The  last  fighting  man  in  Ireland  to 
face  the  great  Dutch  warrior,  whose  fame  is 
second  only  to  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  was  the  in- 
comparable Sarsfield,  who  held  out  at  Limerick 
[105] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

to  the  last,  long  after  King  James  had  fled,  after 
his  overthrow  at  the  battle  of  the  Boyne,  which 
was  fought  for  some  days,  and  decided  on  July  12, 
1690  (Orangeman's  Day),  a  circumstance  which 
has  exercised  a  most  powerful  effect  on  the  course 
of  Irish  history  for  two  centuries.  There  was 
only  one  general  in  Ireland  worthy  to  cope  with 
the  Dutch  king,  say  the  military  critics,  and  that 
man  was  Sarsfield;  but  James,  being  a  king, 
wished  to  have  the  engagement  fought  under  his 
leadership,  and  lost. 

After  King  James  fled  to  France,  the  gallant 
regiments  of  Sarsfield  fought  on  and  refused  to 
yield  to  superior  forces.  The  French,  under 
Lauzan,  deserted  Sarsfield  at  Limerick,  where  he 
was  besieged  while  King  William  destroyed  the 
country  surrounding  Limerick.  Sarsfield,  in  the 
night,  led  his  troops  out  over  Thomond  Bridge, 
crossed  the  Shannon  at  Killaloe,  and  won  a  vic- 
tory. The  battle  lasted  several  days,  and  the 
English  forces  retreated.  The  women  fought 
under  Sarsfield  with  great  intrepidity.  King 
William  retreated  to  Clonmel,  and  left  for  Eng- 
land, from  Dungannon,  leaving  the  army  in  Ire- 
land in  charge  of  Ginkell.  The  French  again  de- 
serted Sarsfield  and  embarked  for  France.  Gin- 
[106] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

kell,  with  a  great  army,  besieged  Limerick,  which 
Sarsfield  defended  for  seven  months.  Finally, 
Ginkell,  who  was  anxious  to  end  the  war,  and 
Sarsfield,  being  alone,  although  holding  the  city, 
signed  the  celebrated  Treaty  of  Limerick  on 
October  3,  1691.  Just  then  the  French  fleet 
arrived  in  the  Shannon  River  with  an  army  and 
navy  sufficient,  with  Sarsfield,  to  defeat  the  Eng- 
lish. But  the  gallant  hero  refused  to  break  the 
treaty,  despite  the  entreaties  of  his  officers.  He 
ordered  his  army  to  the  Continent,  as  agreed, 
where  he  died  on  the  battlefield  of  Landen,  lead- 
ing a  famous  charge  at  the  head  of  the  Irish 
Brigade  at  the  moment  of  victory. 

The  Treaty  of  Limerick  guaranteed  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  and  was  a  sort  of  a  Magna 
Charta  for  Ireland.  The  treaty  was  quickly  vio- 
lated, proscription  followed,  2,000,000  acres  of 
land  was  confiscated,  and  the  trade  and  commerce 
of  the  island  transferred  by  law  to  England.  The 
violated  Treaty  of  Limerick  was  followed  by  all 
the  horrors  of  the  Penal  Days,  as  well  as  the 
period  of  greatest  decay  in  Irish  commerce  and 
industry.  No  English  historian  has  endeavored 
to  justify  the  breaking  of  Limerick's  historic 
treaty. 

[107] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 
LEST  WE  FORGET 

The  Irish  people  are  anxious  for  fear  the  Ger- 
man aircraft  will  hover  over  Ireland  and  drop 
bombs  on  the  towns.  Sir  Edward  Carson  of 
Ulster  warns  the  people  of  Ireland  to  beware  of 
the  certainty  of  attacks  from  the  skies.  We  are 
in  position  to  state  that  assurances  have  been  re- 
ceived from  the  German  Government  that  it  is 
not  its  present  intention  to  attack  Ireland  from 
the  air.  After  England  has  been  subjugated  and 
conquered  the  Germans  will  take  over  Ireland 
and  make  of  it  a  free  nation. 

The  Irish  press  denounces  the  Germans  in  un- 
measured terms  for  dropping  bombs  on  the  unde- 
fended English  towns.  The  same  newspapers 
praised  the  English  aeroplane  fliers,  earlier  in  the 
war,  who  dropped  bombs  on  German  fishing  vil- 
lages on  the  way  to  the  German  naval  base.  They 
have  approved  the  daring  French  aviators  drop- 
ping bombs  on  undefended  German  towns.  They 
seem  to  have  forgotten  the  fact  that  the  French 
airmen  dropped  bombs  on  the  undefended  Ger- 
man town  of  Nurnberg  even  before  war  was  de- 
clared. The  Germans  are  merely  retaliating  with 
their  Zeppelins  and  other  aircraft  by  attacking 
coast  and  arsenal  towns  containing  munitions  of 
war,  wireless  stations,  coast  artillery,  barracks, 
[108] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

and  places  believed  to  be  occupied  by  soldiers.  Of 
course,  this  murderous  art  of  modern  warfare  on 
both  sides  causes  one  to  shudder,  but  the  Allies 
began  it  and  are  now  paying  the  severer  penalty 
because  of  the  greater  skill  of  the  German  airmen. 
When  the  English  soldiers  in  1814  destroyed 
Washington,  the  American  capital,  applying  the 
torch  to  the  national  capital  buildings,  burning 
the  White  House,  the  home  of  the  President,  and 
fired  the  newspaper  plants,  there  was  much 
righteous  indignation. 

Green's  "History  of  England"  states  that  this 
work  of  vandalism  was  pursued  under  strict 
orders  from  the  British  Government. 

"Willingly,"  said  the  London  Statesman, 
"would  we  throw  a  veil  of  oblivion  over  our 
transactions  at  Washington.  The  Cossacks 
spared  Paris,  but  we  spared  not  the  capital  of 
America." 

(From  the  New  York  World,  January  28,  1915.) 

INQUIRY  IN  BRITAIN  FINDS  NO  OUTRAGES 

DONE  TO  BELGIANS 

THOUSANDS  OF  CHARGES  MADE  AGAINST  GERMANS  IN- 
VESTIGATED  BY  GOVERNMENT  AND  FOUND  BASELESS 

WASHINGTON,  January  27. — Of  the  thousands  of 
Belgian  refugees  who  are  now  in  England  not  one  has 
been  subjected  to  atrocities  by  German  soldiers. 
[109] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

This,  in  effect,  is  the  substance  of  a  report  received 
at  the  State  Department  from  the  American  Embassy 
in  London.  The  report  states  that  the  British  Govern- 
ment thoroughly  had  investigated  thousands  of  reports 
to  the  effect  that  German  soldiers  had  perpetrated  out- 
rages on  the  fleeing  Belgians. 

During  the  early  period  of  the  war  columns  of 
British  newspapers  were  filled  with  the  accusations. 

Agents  of  the  British  Government,  according  to  the 
report  from  the  American  Embassy  at  London,  care- 
fully investigated  all  of  these  charges;  they  inter- 
viewed the  alleged  victims  and  sifted  all  the  evidence. 

As  a  result  of  the  investigation  the  British  Foreign 
Office  notified  the  American  Embassy  that  the  charges 
appeared  to  be  based  upon  hysteria  and  natural  preju- 
dice. The  report  added  that  many  of  the  Belgians 
had  suffered  severe  hardships,  but  they  should  be 
charged  up  against  the  exigencies  of  war  rather  than 
the  brutality  of  the  individual  German  soldiers. 


[no] 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  IRISH  HOME  RULE  BILL 

"Mockery  of  Irish  Independence  is  not  what 
we  want.  The  bauble  of  a  powerless  Parlia- 
ment does  not  lure  us." — THOMAS  DAVIS. 

"The  people  never  give  up  their  liberties  but 
under  some  delusion." — EDMUND  BURKE. 

THE  present  writer  has  in  his  possession  one 
of  the  few  copies  of  the  Home  Rule  measure 
signed  by  the  King,  subject  to  Ulster  amendments 
and  the  partition  of  Ireland  along  newly  marked 
religious  lines,  the  whole  shaky  structure  to  be 
held  back  until  after  the  settlement  of  the  war, 
and  offered  now  as  a  legislative  recruiting  bait 
to  catch  soldiers. 

The  most  widely  circulated  newspaper  in  Ire- 
land is  the  Dublin  Freeman's  Journal,  the  chief 
organ  of  Leader  John  Redmond.  A  recent  issue 
(November  21st)  continues  to  publish  the  most 
startling  stories  of  "German  Atrocities,"  known 
to  be  false  on  this  side,  but  designed  to  help  re- 
cruiting. Here  are  a  few  of  the  scare  headlines : 
[in] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 
MURDER  AND  RAPINE. 

GERMAN'S  WARFARE  ON  THE 
DEFENCELESS. 

GERMAN  SAVAGES. 
DEVILS  AND  BEASTS. 

"The  first  Prussian  soldier  that  lands  in  Ire- 
land will  be  the  public  executioner,  etc."  Edi- 
torially, the  paper  bemoans  the  failure  of  Irish 
exports  last  year  and  says  that  Ireland's  economic 
path  is  the  reverse  of  any  other  country,  and 
that  Ireland  alone,  among  European  countries, 
has  an  excess  of  food  exports  over  manufactures. 
Of  course,  having  no  industries  to  enable  wage- 
workers  to  eat  the  products  of  Irish  farms,  the 
surplus  must  be  exported.  Could  Germany  do 
worse  ? 

I  was  surprised  in  Ireland  this  fall  to  find  many 
farmers  in  the  south  of  Ireland  opposed  to  the 
Home  Rule  Bill,  solely  on  the  ground  that  their 
taxes  would  be  increased  by  the  army  of  office- 
holders created  under  the  local  government.  As 
there  are  few  factories,  outside  of  three  counties, 
it  follows  that  the  burden  of  carrying  the  new 

[112] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

government  must  fall  on  the  farmers.  And, 
with  an  amended  bill,  which  Mr.  Redmond  agreed 
to  accept  last  spring  in  conference,  eliminating 
the  chief  industrial  boroughs  of  Ulster  from  the 
act,  the  farmers  would  be  further  burdened  by 
the  office-holding  class  living  off  the  rates  col- 
lected from  the  poor  districts.  The  great  manu- 
facturing cities  of  the  United  States,  to  a  con- 
siderable extent,  relieve  the  farmer  from  exces- 
sive state,  often  county,  and  national  taxation, 
because  of  the  heavy  assessments  placed  on  fac- 
tory property,  or  stock  and  bonds  relating  to  it. 
Agricultural  laborers  are  the  poorest  paid  class 
of  laborers,  and  have  no  money  to  spare  beyond 
the  bare  subsistence  from  the  land.  The  factory 
worker  is  often  a  skilled  wage-earner,  and  it  is 
this  class  only,  unknown  to  most  of  Ireland,  who 
can  insure  the  prosperity  of  a  nation.  An  Irish 
manufacturing  world  would  not  only  furnish  the 
farmer  with  a  home  market  for  his  products,  but 
would  furnish  a  steady  guarantee  of  good  prices 
so  the  farmer  would  have  more  money  for  his 
family.  The  nearest  to  the  best  known  condition 
of  prosperity  is  where  a  country  supplies  diversi- 
fied manufacture,  commerce  and  agriculture. 
When  Ireland  relied  solely  on  the  potato  for 
["3] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

life,  the  black  blight  of  famine  swept  over  the 
land,  and  millions  died  from  starvation,  the 
plague,  or  fled  the  country. 

THE  TERMS  OF  THE  HOME  RULE  BILL 

The  text  of  the  opening  clause  of  the  Home 
Rule  Bill  follows: 

A  bill  to  amend  the  provision  for  the  government 
of  Ireland. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  King's  most  excellent  Majesty, 
by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Lord's  spir- 
itual and  temporal  and  Commons  in  this  present  Par- 
liament assembled  and  by  the  authority  of  the  same, 
as  follows: 

LEGISLATIVE  AUTHORITY 

1.  On  and  after  the  appointed  day  there  shall  be  in 
Ireland  an  Irish  Parliament  consisting  of  His  Majesty 
the  King  and  two  houses,  namely,  the  Irish  Senate  and 
the  Irish  House  of  Commons. 

2.  Notwithstanding  the  establishment  of  the  Irish 
Parliament  or  anything  contained  in  this  Act,   the 
supreme  power  and  authority  of  the  Parliament  of 
the  United  Kingdom  shall  remain  unaffected  and  un- 
diminished  o'er  all  persons,  matters  and  things  within 
His  Majesty's  dominions. 

The  Irish  Parliament  shall  not  have  power  to  make 
laws  in  respect  of  the  following  matters,  in  particular, 
or  any  of  them,  namely : 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

i.  The  Crown,  or  the  succession  to  the  Crown,  or  a 
Regency  or  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  except  as  respects  the 
exercise  of  his  executive  power  in  relation  to  Irish 
services  as  defined  for  the  purposes  of  this  Act.  Or 
(2)  The  making  of  peace  or  war  or  matters  arising 
from  a  state  of  war  or  the  regulation  of  the  conduct 
or  any  portion  of  His  Majesty's  subjects  during  the 
existence  of  hostilities  between  foreign  states  with 
which  His  Majesty  is  at  peace  in  relation  to  those  hos- 
tilities; or  (3)  the  navy,  the  army,  the  territorial  force 
or  any  other  naval  or  military  force  or  the  defence  of 
the  realm,  or  any  other  naval  or  military  matter;  or 
(4)  treaties  of  any  relations  with  foreign  states  or 
relations  with  other  parts  of  His  Majesty's  Dominions, 
or  offences  connected  with  any  such  treaties,  or  rela- 
tions, or  procedure  connected  with  the  extradition  of 
criminals  under  any  treaty,  or  the  return  of  fugitive 
offenders  from  or  to  any  part  of  His  Majesty's  Do- 
minions; or  (5)  dignities  or  titles  of  honor;  or  (6) 
treason,  felony,  alienage  naturalization,  or  aliens  as 
such;  or  (7)  trade  with  any  place  out  of  Ireland  (ex- 
cept so  far  as  trade  may  be  affected  by  the  exercise  of 
the  powers  of  taxation  given  to  the  Irish  Parliament, 
or  by  the  regulation  of  importation  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  preventing  contagious  disease),  Quarantine  or 
navigation,  including  merchant  shipping  (except  as 
respects  inland  waters  and  local  health  or  harbor  reg- 
ulations) ;  or  (8)  lighthouses,  buoys  or  beacons  (ex- 
cept so  far  as  they  can  consistently  with  any  general 
Act  of  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  be  con- 
structed or  maintained  by  a  local  harbor  authority)  ; 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

or  (9)  coinage,  legal  tender,  or  any  change  in  the 
standard  of  weights  and  measures;  or  (10)  trade- 
marks, designs,  merchandise  marks,  copyright  or  pat- 
ent rights;  or  (n)  any  of  the  following  matters  (in 
this  Act  referred  to  as  reserved  matters),  namely:  (a) 
the  general  subject  matter  of  the  Acts  relating  to  land 
purchase  in  Ireland;  the  Old  Age  Pensions  Acts,  1908 
and  1911 ;  the  National  Insurance  Act,  1911 ;  and  the 
Labor  Exchanges  Act,  1909;  (b)  the  collection  of 
taxes;  (c)  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary,  and  the  man- 
agement and  control  of  that  force;  (d)  Post  Office 
Savings  Banks,  Trustee  Savings  Banks,  and  friendly 
societies;  and  (e)  public  loans  made  in  Ireland  before 
the  passing  of  this  Act,  provided  that  the  limitation  on 
the  powers  of  the  Irish  Parliament  under  this  section 
shall  cease  as  respects  any  such  reserved  matter  if  the 
corresponding  reserved  service  is  transferred  to  the 
Irish  Government  under  the  provisions  of  this  Act. 
Any  law  made  in  contravention  of  the  limitations  im- 
posed by  this  section  shall  so  far  as  it  contravenes 
those  limitations  be  void. 

EXECUTIVE   AUTHORITY 

Clause  4. — (i)  The  Executive  power  in  Ireland 
shall  continue  vested  in  His  Majesty  the  King,  and 
nothing  in  this  Act  shall  affect  the  exercise  of  that 
power,  except  as  respects  Irish  services  as  defined  for 
the  purposes  of  this  Act.  (2)  As  respects  those  Irish 
services  the  Lord  Lieutenant  or  other  chief  executive 
officer  or  officers  for  the  time  being  appointed  in  his 
place  on  behalf  of  His  Majesty,  shall  exercise  any  pre- 
tn6] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

rogative  or  other  executive  power  of  His  Majesty,  the 
exercise  of  which  may  be  delegated  to  him  by  His  Maj- 
esty. (3)  The  power  so  delegated  shall  be  exercised 
through  such  Irish  departments  as  may  be  established 
by  Irish  Act  or  subject  thereto  by  the  Lord  Lieuten- 
ant and  the  Lord  Lieutenant  may  appoint  officers  to 
administer  those  departments,  and  those  officers  shall 
hold  office  during  the  pleasure  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant. 
(4)  The  persons  who  are  for  the  time  being  heads  of 
such  Irish  departments  as  may  be  determined  by  Irish 
Act  or  in  the  absence  of  any  such  determination  by  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  and  such  other  persons  (if  any)  as 
the  Lord  Lieutenant  may  appoint,  shall  be  the  Irish 
Ministers. 

IRISH    PARLIAMENT 

1.  There  shall  be  a  session  of  the  Irish  Parliament 
once  at  least  in  every  year. 

2.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  shall  in  His  Majesty's  name 
summon  and  prorogue  and  dissolve  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment. 

7.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  shall  give  or  withhold  the 
consent  of  His  Majesty  to  bills  passed  by  the  two 
Houses  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  subject  to  the  follow- 
ing limitations,  namely:  (i)  He  shall  comply  with 
any  instructions  given  by  His  Majesty  the  King  in  re- 
spect of  any  such  bill;  and  (2)  he  shall,  if  so  directed 
by  the  King,  postpone  giving  the  assent  of  His  Maj- 
esty to  any  such  bill  presented  to  him  for  assent  for 
such  period  as  His  Majesty  may  direct. 

Qause  8. — Part  I.  The  Irish  Senate  shall  consist  of 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

forty  senators,  nominated  as  respects  the  first  senators 
by  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  subject  to  any  instructions 
given  by  His  Majesty  in  respect  of  the  nominations, 
and  afterward  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant  on  the  advice 
of  the  Executive  Committee.  The  term  of  office  of 
each  senator  shall  be  eight  years.  Vacancies  in  the 
Senate  to  be  filled  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant. 

The  Irish  House  of  Commons  shall  consist  of  164 
members,  returned  by  the  constituencies  of  Ireland. 

AN  ATTENUATED  MEASURE 

The  act  is  more  surprising  in  what  it  estops 
Ireland  from  doing  than  for  any  great  meas- 
ures of  legislative  relief  whereby  a  nation  is 
made  healthy  and  enduring  in  the  economic  sense. 

The  representation  of  Ireland  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons  is  cut  down  from  105  to  42. 
As  the  principal  power  over  Ireland  is  still  in- 
vested in  the  British  House  of  Commons,  the  re- 
duction will  seriously  affect  the  influence  of  the 
Irish  members  at  London.  The  changes  for  the 
good  of  Ireland  are  briefly  as  follows: 

An  Irish  treasury  and  fund  is  created  which 
collects  the  proceeds  of  all  taxes  levied  in  Ire- 
land. All  local  taxation  is  handled  by  the  new 
administration.  The  Irish  Parliament  cannot 
change  the  tariffs  on  exports  or  imports,  but  can 
[118] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

control  and  rearrange  its  internal  finances,  sub- 
ject, of  course,  to  the  veto  of  the  nominated  Sen- 
ate and  the  King.  Irish  control  is  given  to  all 
purely  local  improvements.  Various  funds,  now 
managed  in  London,  are  transferred  to  Ireland, 
the  money  to  be  disbursed  by  joint  exchequer 
boards.  The  Irish  Government  can  make  loans 
without  going  to  London. 

PROVISIONS  AS  TO  JUDICIAL  POWER 
Clause  27 — A  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  or  other 
Superior  Court  in  Ireland,  or  of  any  County  Court,  or 
other  Court  with  a  like  jurisdiction  in  Ireland,  ap- 
pointed after  the  passing  of  this  Act,  shall  be  appointed 
by  the  Lord  Lieutenant  and  shall  hold  his  office  by  the 
same  tenure  as  that  by  which  the  office  is  held  at  the 
time  of  the  passing  of  this  Act,  with  the  substitution 
of  an  address  from  both  Houses  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment for  an  address  from  both  Houses  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  during  his  continu- 
ance in  office  his  salary  shall  not  be  diminished  or  his 
right  to  pension  altered  without  his  consent. 

Clause  28. — (i)  The  appeal  from  Courts  in  Ire- 
land to  the  House  of  Lords  shall  cease,  and  where  any 
person  would  but  for  this  Act  have  a  right  to  appeal 
from  any  Court  in  the  land  to  the  House  of  Lords,  that 
person  shall  have  the  like  right  to  appeal  to  His  Maj- 
esty in  Council,  and  all  enactments  relating  to  His 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Majesty  the  King  in  Council  and  to  the  judicial  com- 
mittee of  the  Privy  Council  shall  apply  accordingly. 
(2)  When  judicial  committee  sit  for  hearing  any  ap- 
peal from  a  Court  in  Ireland,  in  pursuance  of  any  pro- 
visions of  this  Act,  there  shall  be  present  not  less  than 
four  Lords  of  Appeal  within  the  meaning  of  the  Ap- 
pellate Jurisdiction  Act,  1876,  and  at  least  one  member 
who  is  or  has  been  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  in 
Ireland.  (3)  A  rota  of  Privy  Councillors  to  sit  for 
hearing  Appeals  from  Courts  in  Ireland  shall  be  made 
annually  by  His  Majesty  in  council  and  the  Privy 
Councillors  or  some  of  them  on  that  rota  shall  sit  to 
hear  the  said  appeals.  A  casual  vacancy  occurring  in 
the  rota  during  the  year  may  be  filled  by  Order  in 
Council.  (4)  Nothing  in  this  Act  shall  affect  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  House  of  Lords  to  determine  the 
claim  to  Irish  Peerages. 

Clause  30. — (i)  Where  any  decision  of  the  Court 
of  Appeal  in  Ireland  involves  the  decision  of  any 
question  as  to  the  validity  of  any  law  made  in  the  Irish 
Parliament  and  the  decisions  not  otherwise  subject  to 
an  appeal  to  His  Majesty  the  King  in  council,  an  ap- 
peal shall  lie  to  His  Majesty  the  King  in  council  by 
virtue  of  this  section,  but  only  by  leave  of  the  Court 
of  Appeal  or  His  Majesty.  (2)  Where  any  decision 
of  a  Court  in  Ireland  involves  the  decision  of  any  ques- 
tion as  to  the  validity  of  any  law  made  by  the  Irish 
Parliament,  and  the  decision  is  not  subject  to  any  ap- 
peal to  the  Court  of  Appeal  in  Ireland,  as  appeal  shall 

[120] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

lie  to  the  Court  of  Appeal  in  Ireland  by  virtue  of  this 
section. 

Clause  31. —  (i)  Notwithstanding  anything  to  the 
contrary  in  any  Act,  every  subject  of  His  Majesty  shall 
be  qualified  to  hold  the  office  of  Lord  Lieutenant  of 
Ireland  without  reference  to  his  religious  belief.  (2) 
The  term  of  office  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant  shall  be 
six  years  without  prejudice  to  the  power  of  His  Maj- 
esty at  any  time  to  revoke  the  appointment.  (3) 
The  salary  and  expenses  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant  shall 
be  paid  out  of  moneys  provided  by  the  Parliament  of 
the  United  Kingdom,  but  there  shall  be  deducted  from 
the  transferred  sum  in  each  year  toward  the  payment 
of  the  Lord  Lieutenant's  salary  a  sum  of  £5,000. 

All  existing  British  officials  in  the  Civil  Service  of 
Ireland  are  continued  in  office,  but  the  Irish  adminis- 
tration can  create  new  offices  for  departments  in  the 
new  bill,  not  hitherto  organized.  The  Irish  Parlia- 
ment shall  have  no  control  over  the  police  or  constab- 
ulary for  at  least  six  years.  It  is  up  to  the  King  to 
decide  whether  he  shall  turn  over  the  government 
buildings  in  Ireland  to  the  Irish  Government. 

POWERS  OF  VARYING  TAXATION 

The  bill  confers  on  the  Irish  Parliament  the 
following  financial  powers: 

i.  It  may  add  to  the  rate  of  excise  duties,  customs 
duties  on  beer  and  spirits,  stamp  duties  (with  certain 
exceptions) . 

[121] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

2.  It  may  add  to  an  extent  not  exceeding  ten  per 
cent,  to  the  income  tax,  death  duties,  or  customs  du- 
ties other  than  the  duties  on  beer  and  spirits  imposed 
by  the  Imperial  Parliament. 

3.  It  may  levy  any  new  taxes  other  than  new  cus- 
toms duties. 

4.  It  may  reduce  any  tax  levied  in  Ireland  with  the 
exception  of  certain  stamp  duties,  etc. 

The  Imperial  Treasury  will  collect  the  revenue 
arising  from  any  increases  in  taxation  enacted  by 
the  Irish  Parliament  in  the  exercise  of  those 
powers  and  an  addition  will  be  made  to  the  trans- 
ferred sum  of  such  amount  as  the  Joint  Ex- 
chequer Board  may  determine  to  be  the  produce 
of  the  additional  taxation.  Similarly  if  taxation 
is  reduced  by  the  Irish  Parliament  a  deduction 
will  be  made  from  the  transferred  sum  corre- 
sponding to  the  loss  of  revenue  due  to  the  repeal 
of  a  tax  or  to  the  collection  at  the  lower  rates. 
The  Irish  Exchequer  will,  therefore,  gain  or  lose 
by  any  increase  or  decrease  in  taxation  enacted 
by  the  Irish  Parliament,  but  the  net  revenue  of 
the  Imperial  Exchequer  will  remain  unaffected 
by  such  changes. 

If  excise  or  customs  duties  are  imposed  at  dif- 

[122] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

ferent  rates  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  re- 
spectively, provision  is  made  for  the  adjustment 
of  taxes  paid  in  respect  of  articles  passing  from 
one  country  to  the  other.  As  administrative  dif- 
ficulties might  arise  in  certain  cases  if  the  ten 
per  cent,  limitation  mentioned  above  were  in 
terms  to  prohibit  additions  to  the  taxes  in  ques- 
tion to  an  extent  of  more  than  ten  per  cent,  of 
the  normal  tax,  the  bill  effects  the  object  in  view 
by  enacting  that  only  such  proceeds  of  the  tax 
as  do  not  exceed  ten  per  cent,  of  the  yield  of  the 
imperial  tax  shall  be  transferred  to  the  Irish  Ex- 
chequer. The  bill  makes  no  specific  reference  to 
the  powers  of  the  Imperial  Parliament  to  levy 
taxation  in  Ireland.  The  provision  in  Clause  1 
that  the  supreme  power  and  authority  of  the 
Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  shall  remain 
with  the  existing  powers  of  the  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment rules  in  this  regard. 

The  governmental  revenues  of  Ireland  are 
scarcely  above  $54,000,000.  The  Home  Rule 
Bill  will  give  financial  control  to  the  Irish  admin- 
istration of  about  $35,000,000.  The  best  esti- 
mate in  Ireland  is  that  about  1,400  offices  will  be 
created  under  the  act,  which  will  be  given  to  the 
present  followers  of  the  politicians  in  control  of 
[123] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

the  Parliamentary  Party.  The  increase  in  taxa- 
tion can  only  come  out  of  excise  taxes  or  raising 
the  value  of  land,  as  Ireland,  or  that  portion  of 
it  included  in  the  act,  has  few  manufactures. 
There  is  no  hope  for  an  industrial  revival  through 
an  act  which  expressly  prohibits  Ireland  from 
having  any  control  whatsoever  over  foreign 
trade,  treason,  aliens,  quarantine,  navigation, 
lighthouses,  coinage,  legal  tender,  trade-marks, 
patent  rights,  police,  banks,  or  merchant  shipping. 
But  will  this  attenuated  and  disappointing 
measure  be  finally  adopted  after  all?  (1)  The 
Conservative  Party  in  England  have  declared 
that  their  opposition  is  in  no  way  abated.  (2) 
The  Ulster  Unionists  have  renewed  their  cove- 
nant against  any  form  of  Home  Rule.  The  Ul- 
ster Unionists  are  powerful,  because  they  are 
backed  by  the  whole  of  the  conservative  and  aris- 
tocratic forces  in  England.  In  addition  to  this 
normal  backing,  they  have  now  put  the  Liberal 
authors  of  the  Home  Rule  measure  under  obli- 
gations to  them.  The  Ulster  leaders  have  handed 
their  volunteers  with  their  arms  to  the  British 
War  Office.  They  must  have  been  given  some 
assurances  before  they  did  this.  The  assurances 
that  the  Ulster  Unionist  leaders  would  ask 
[124] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

would  be  that  the  Home  Rule  measure  should  be 
allowed  to  remain  a  dead  letter.* 

*Professor  Robert  Ellis  Thompson,  of  Pennsylvania,  is  one 
of  the  most  noted  of  American  political  economists.  He  says 
that  "Ireland  is  in  the  best  position  possible  for  protesting 
against  the  whole  system,  of  which  she  has  been  the  most  con- 
spicuous victim.  Some  of  her  American  friends  plead  that  Eng- 
land has  been  so  good  to  her  that  she  owes  to  the  British 
Empire  the  utmost  exertion  in  the  present  crisis.  They  point 
to  the  concession  of  Home  Rule  as  binding  the  country  to  per- 
petual loyalty. 

"They  do  not  seem  to  be  aware  that  any  self-governing  colony 
of  the  empire,  not  excepting  the  Boers,  who  were  fighting  Great 
Britain  so  recently,  enjoys  far  more  Home  Rule  than  the  new 
legislation  will  secure  to  Ireland.  They  all  have  in  their  hands 
the  fiscal  legislation,  which  enables  them  to  secure  the  pros- 
perity of  their  people  by  developing  their  industry.  Ireland  is 
denied  this  most  strictly,  and  is  left  still  dependent  upon  the 
fruits  of  her  agriculture,  with  the  certainty  of  famine  whenever 
the  crops  fail. 

"They  remind  us  that  Ireland  gets  a  larger  share  of  the  old 
age  pensions  than  either  England  or  Scotland.  They  forget  that 
the  poverty  of  Ireland,  caused  by  the  destruction  of  her  manu- 
factures, has  driven  and  is  driving  out  so  many  of  her  able- 
bodied  people,  as  to  make  the  proportion  of  aged  people  in  the 
census  far  greater  than  in  any  other  country  of  the  world.  They 
speak  reproachfully  of  the  scanty  response  to  English  recruiting 
for  the  war.  Do  they  expect  Ireland  to  deplete  her  scanty  popu- 
lation of  military  age  by  sending  out  for  England  the  soldiers 
the  latter  cannot  enlist  at  home?" 


[125] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

tine  Republic,  an  Irish  paper,  contains  more  col- 
umns of  advertising  than  any  newspaper  in  Ire- 
land. There  are  many  newspapers  in  America 
which  specialize  in  Irish  news.  Some  of  them 
have  managed  to  get  along  for  many  years  with- 
out having  to  furnish  any  other  class  of  news. 
Others  publish  an  Irish  page  or  two  of  news  from 
the  various  counties  in  Ireland.  In  each  diocese 
there  are  Catholic  papers,  and  the  majority  of 
them  give  space  to  Irish  affairs.  The  Irish  so- 
cieties are  numerous,  some  of  them  wealthy,  and 
they  keep  alive  the  patriotic  spirit.  They  hold 
thousands  of  meetings,  outside  of  Ireland,  to  re- 
new the  memories  of  great  anniversary  days — 
Robert  Emmet,  the  Manchester  martyrs,  Wolfe 
Tone,  Thomas  Moore,  and  others.  And  they 
have  practically,  by  common  consent,  made  the 
birth  of  Saint  Patrick  a  national  holiday  in  the 
United  States. 

The  true  Irish  exiles,  transplanted  to  lands  of 
freedom,  long  to  see  Ireland  a  free  nation.  They 
know  they  can  succeed  and  do  succeed  in  com- 
merce and  industry  everywhere  in  the  world  out- 
side of  Ireland.  The  spirit  of  freedom  has  pre- 
served the  homogeneity  of  the  Celts,  and  the  eter- 
nal principle  of  liberty  is  the  keynote  for  all  im- 
[128] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

portant  Irish-American  societies,  celebrations, 
newspapers,  and  dramas,  and  they  seem  able  to 
hand  down  that  spirit  through  three  and  four 
generations.  Make  of  Erin  a  mere  West  British 
dependency  and  you  have  destroyed  the  soul  and 
spirit  of  the  movement  which  has  been  inspired 
by  the  love  and  faith  of  the  emigrants. 

LAMENT  OF  THE  IRISH  EMIGRANT 

I'm  sittin'  on  the  stile,  Mary, 

Where  we  sat  side  by  side 
On  a  bright  May  mornin'  long  ago, 

When  first  you  were  my  bride. 
The  corn  was  springin'  fresh  and  green, 

The  lark  sang  loud  and  high, 
And  the  red  was  on  your  lip,  Mary, 

And  the  love-light  in  your  eye. 

The  place  is  little  changed,  Mary, 

The  sky  is  bright  as  then, 
The  lark's  loud  song  is  in  my  ear 

And  the  corn  is  green  again ; 
But  I  miss  the  soft  clasp  of  your  hand, 

And  your  breath  warm  on  my  cheek, 
And  I  still  keep  listening  for  the  words 

You  never  more  will  speak. 

'Tis  but  a  step  down  yonder  lane, 
And  the  little  church  stands  near, — 
[129] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

The  church  where  we  were  wed,  Mary, — 

I  see  the  spire  from  here. 
But  the  graveyard  lies  between,  Mary, 

And  my  step  might  break  your  rest, — 
For  I've  laid  you,  darling,  down  to  sleep, 

With  your  baby  on  your  breast. 

I'm  very  lonely  now,  Mary, 

For  the  poor  make  no  new  friends, 
But,  O,  they  love  the  better  still 

The  few  our  Father  sends! 
And  you  were  all  I  had,  Mary, 

My  blessin'  and  my  pride ; 
There's  nothing  left  to  care  for  now, 

Since  my  poor  Mary  died. 

Yours  was  the  good,  brave  heart,  Mary, 

That  still  kept  hoping  on, 
When  the  trust  in  God  had  left  my  soul, 

And  my  arm's  young  strength  was  gone ; 
There  was  comfort  ever  in  your  lip, 

And  the  kind  look  on  your  brow, — 
I  bless  you,  Mary,  for  that  same, 

Though  you  cannot  hear  me  now. 

I  thank  you  for  the  patient  smile, 

When  your  heart  was  fit  to  break, 
When  the  hunger  pain  was  gnawin'  there, 

And  you  hid  it  for  my  sake ! 
I  bless  you  for  the  pleasant  word 

When  your  heart  was  sad  and 
[130] 


sore, 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

O,  I'm  thankful  you  are  gone,  Mary, 
Where  grief  can't  reach  you  more ! 

I'm  biddin'  you  a  long  farewell, 

My  Mary  kind  and  true; 
But  I'll  not  forget  you,  darlin', 

In  the  land  I'm  goin'  to. 
They  say  there's  bread  and  work  for  all, 

And  the  sun  shines  always  there, 
But  I'll  not  forget  old  Ireland, 

Were  it  fifty  times  as  fair. 

And  often  in  those  grand  old  woods, 

I'll  sit  and  shut  my  eyes, 
And  my  heart  will  travel  back  again 

To  the  place  where  Mary  lies ; 
And  I'll  think  I  see  the  little  stile 

Where  we  sat  side  by  side, 
And  the  springin'  corn,  and  bright  May  morn, 

When  first  you  were  my  bride. 

As  the  expatriated  sons  of  Ireland  found 
refuge  in  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  among 
them  were  many  men  and  women  of  genius,  their 
thoughts  turned  to  the  land  of  their  hope  and 
sorrows,  and  they  are  the  men  who  have  made 
possible  every  reform  secured  by  agitation,  and 
no  important  social  betterment  ever  comes  with- 
out ceaseless  agitation.  There  are  no  "Scotch" 
[131] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

or  "Welsh"  members  of  Parliament,  but  there  is 
an  Irish  Nationalist  Party  of  seventy  or  more. 
And  there  could  not  possibly  have  existed  a  purely 
Irish  party  without  the  moral  and  practical  as- 
sistance of  patriotic  men  and  women  in  various 
parts  of  the  world.  Irish  freedom  and  liberty 
means  something  more  to  us  than  mere  senti- 
ment and  pride.  No  material  or  individual  bene- 
fit can  come  to  any  American  from  the  success 
of  the  Irish  cause.  A  number  of  our  best  men, 
with  fine  minds,  who  might  well  have  succeeded 
in  other  pursuits,  have  become  impoverished 
waiting,  and  watching,  and  working  to  see  the 
beacon  fires  of  freedom  burning  on  the  shores  of 
the  Emerald  Isle.  It  is  not  the  millions  and  millions 
of  dollars  sent  across  the  seas  that  we  regret,  but 
the  thing  we  cannot  let  escape  our  minds  is  the 
hideous  fact  that  the  money  to  save  Ireland  built 
up  a  political  machine  which  is  now  crushing  the 
young  Irish,  driving  those  to  war  who  should 
have  been  saved  for  Ireland. 

America  was  the  country  which  opened  its 
great  arms  and  provided  a  harbor  of  refuge  for 
our  exiles,  and  worthy  adopted  sons,  indeed, 
many  of  them  proved  to  be. 

Our  friends,  who  know  where  the  real  work 
[132] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

of  Irish  emancipation  was  often  started,  realize 
the  peculiar  reasons  which  exist  for  the  apparent 
interference  of  men  and  women  of  Irish  blood 
with  Redmond's  plan  of  surrendering  the  youth 
of  Ireland. 

Michael  Davitt  may  be  said  to  have  founded 
the  Land  League  which  enabled  the  present  Irish 
Party  to  live  and  exist  for  thirty  years  on  a  great 
issue,  "the  land  for  the  people."  Davitt,  in  1846, 
saw  his  home  destroyed  by  the  English  soldiers. 
He  saw  his  father  and  mother  starving,  begging 
for  bread  on  the  streets  of  England.  As  a  child 
he  lost  his  right  arm  in  an  English  factory.  He 
joined  the  Fenian  movement,  was  arrested  in 
1870,  convicted  on  the  evidence  of  an  informer — 
Cory  don — and  sentenced  to  fifteen  years  at  hard 
labor.  He  was  released  in  1877,  came  to  the 
United  States  the  next  year  and  settled  in  Brook- 
lyn, where  he  and  Mr.  John  Devoy  laid  out 
the  plan  for  the  land  movement,  which  brought 
into  being  thousands  of  branches  of  the  Land 
League  in  various  parts  of  the  world  and  saved 
the  Irish  national  movement.  Without  the  aid 
of  several  millions  of  dollars  from  America  and 
a  world-wide  propaganda,  the  British  Govern- 
ment would  have  suppressed  the  League  and  the 
[133] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

landlords  would  still  be  in  possession  of  the  land. 
All  this  vast  supply  of  energy,  time,  money,  press 
and  organization  has  been  given  to  make  Ireland 
free,  and  mostly  by  agencies  outside  of  Ireland; 
hence,  the  feeling  of  horror  to  see  the  cause  be- 
trayed that  the  British  Empire  may  be  saved  to 
exploit  Ireland  further. 


[134] 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ENGLISH   SOCIETY   TEMPTS   IRISH   LEADERS 

AMERICAN  visitors  to  London  express  themselves 
in  terms  of  amazement  over  the  noticeable  efforts 
of  Irish  leaders  to  ascend  the  ladder  of  high 
society,  to  become  drawing-room  favorites  or  se- 
cure the  social  attentions  of  dukes  and  duchesses. 
One  of  the  "patriots"  kept  four  Irish-American 
visitors  waiting  outside  the  House  of  Commons 
three  hours  while  he  was  taking  tea  with  a  duchess 
and  a  countess.  When  they  finally  got  his  ear,  for 
five  minutes  (they  had  come  3,000  miles),  the  only 
subject  he  could  talk  about  was  the  charm  and 
grace  of  the  duchess,  who  had  evidently  patronized 
and  flattered  him  to  his  bent.  One  of  the  party, 
who  had  contributed  $6,000  to  the  cause  of  Ire- 
land, was  so  disgusted  with  that  leader  that  he 
withdrew  from  the  movement  on  his  return  to 
America.  Not  a  word  was  said  by  the  member  on 
the  subject  of  Irish  progress. 

An  Irish  speech  in  a  London  drawing-room  is 
a  gentle,  cooing,  purring  sort  of  an  address,  fit 
only  for  mollycoddles   to  hear,   and  positively 
[i35] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

landlords  would  still  be  in  possession  of  the  land. 
All  this  vast  supply  of  energy,  time,  money,  press 
and  organization  has  been  given  to  make  Ireland 
free,  and  mostly  by  agencies  outside  of  Ireland; 
hence,  the  feeling  of  horror  to  see  the  cause  be- 
trayed that  the  British  Empire  may  be  saved  to 
exploit  Ireland  further. 


[134] 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ENGLISH   SOCIETY   TEMPTS   IRISH   LEADERS 

AMERICAN  visitors  to  London  express  themselves 
in  terms  of  amazement  over  the  noticeable  efforts 
of  Irish  leaders  to  ascend  the  ladder  of  high 
society,  to  become  drawing-room  favorites  or  se- 
cure the  social  attentions  of  dukes  and  duchesses. 
One  of  the  "patriots"  kept  four  Irish-American 
visitors  waiting  outside  the  House  of  Commons 
three  hours  while  he  was  taking  tea  with  a  duchess 
and  a  countess.  When  they  finally  got  his  ear,  for 
five  minutes  (they  had  come  3,000  miles),  the  only 
subject  he  could  talk  about  was  the  charm  and 
grace  of  the  duchess,  who  had  evidently  patronized 
and  flattered  him  to  his  bent.  One  of  the  party, 
who  had  contributed  $6,000  to  the  cause  of  Ire- 
land, was  so  disgusted  with  that  leader  that  he 
withdrew  from  the  movement  on  his  return  to 
America.  Not  a  word  was  said  by  the  member  on 
the  subject  of  Irish  progress. 

An  Irish  speech  in  a  London  drawing-room  is 
a  gentle,  cooing,  purring  sort  of  an  address,  fit 
only  for  mollycoddles   to  hear,   and  positively 
[135] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

painful  and  humiliating  to  real  Nationalists.  The 
ladies  of  the  nobility  stare  through  their  lorg- 
nettes at  the  Irish  member  of  Parliament  as 
though  he  were  some  curious  specimen  of  the 
human  animal,  and  as  he  delivers  himself  of  cer- 
tain harmless  generalities  that  are  not  in  dispute, 
the  ladies  applaud  and  compliment  the  orator  on 
his  charming  grace  and  tact.  During  the  past 
decade  the  Irish  "patriot"  was  sure  of  vying  with 
the  Indian  princes  or  the  blacks  from  Africa  as  a 
social  top  liner,  and  "my  lady's  receptions"  in  the 
London  social  season  are  considered  incomplete 
without  an  "Irishman."  Of  course,  the  blooded 
aristocrats  privately  view  them  as  interlopers, 
and  secretly  detest  them  as  "social  climbers  and 
bounders,"  but  tolerate  their  presence  in  the 
drawing-room  as  a  necessary  attraction  and  the 
source  of  some  little  amusement  for  their  women. 
The  Irish  social  climber  who  can  tell  a  good  story 
or  sing  a  good  song  may  become  a  social  lion ;  but 
if  he  should  attempt  to  discuss  Home  Rule  with 
his  society  friends,  that  would  be  the  end  of  his 
drawing-room  career.  He  has  children  to  educate 
and  advance,  age  is  telling  on  him,  the  patronage 
of  the  powerful  and  wealthy  is  necessary,  and  the 
Anglicizing  of  the  family  proceeds  apace. 
[136] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

How  different  the  roars  of  the  Irish  social  lion 
on  this  side,  when  the  campaign  for  funds  is 
under  way!  Then  it  is,  "Ireland  must  be  free 
from  the  centre  to  the  sea."  If  the  British  Gov- 
ernment could  be  destroyed  by  metaphors,  he 
would  have  succeeded  in  a  single  night.  The 
orator  is  three  or  four  thousand  miles  away,  the 
London  newspapers  publish  little  or  no  American 
news,  the  Irish  member  can  tug  away  at  the  Brit- 
ish lion's  tail  in  entire  safety  in  Carnegie  Hall, 
New  York ;  the  Academy  of  Music,  Philadelphia ; 
the  Tivoli,  of  San  Francisco,  or  the  Auditorium, 
of  Chicago,  and  other  towns,  the  band  playing 
'The  Wearing  of  the  Green"  and  "God  Save  Ire- 
land," and  a  great-hearted  Irish  audience  waving 
the  green  and  the  red,  white  and  blue  colors,  and 
the  golden  shekels  pouring  in  the  laps  of  the 
visitors  to  keep  the  party  alive  in  Ireland. 

The  greatest  Irish  leader  in  the  past  sixty 
years  was  Charles  Stewart  Parnell.  The  one  su- 
premely valuable  piece  of  English  legislation,  the 
Land  Act,  we  owe  to  him.  Parnell  was  an  iron 
disciplinarian  when  in  his  prime.  He  knew  cer- 
tain weaknesses  of  the  Irish  character;  their  de- 
sire for  society,  their  facile  success  in  the  draw- 
ing-room, and  he  was  aware  of  their  temptations 
[i37] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

through  poverty,  through  convivialities,  through 
their  affections,  their  love  of  horses,  and  he 
knew  that  all  these  pleasures  and  successes  were 
controlled  by  an  enervated  and  jaded  aristocracy 
seeking  new  sensations.  Parnell  established  a 
rule  in  the  Irish  Party  that  no  member  should 
attend  the  social  functions  of  the  society  set 
which  rules  London.  This  made  trouble  for  him, 
naturally,  among  the  wives  and  daughters  of 
members  of  Parliament.  His  reply  to  this  criti- 
cism was  in  this  comment:  'The  very  best 
party  that  Ireland  can  send  to  the  English  Parlia- 
ment will  not  last  ten  years  intact.  English  so- 
cial influence,  English  suavity  and  English  gold 
will  break  up  any  Irish  combination  in  due  time." 
And  the  very  thing  is  happening  to-day  that  this 
leader  foresaw.  One  of  the  foremost  American 
newspaper  writers,  an  Irishman  living  in  London 
for  several  years  in  close  touch  with  the  Irish 
members,  remarked,  "Why,  those  lads  are  Irish 
only  when  they  are  in  America;  they  are  dena- 
tionalized in  London." 

The  only  Irishman  who  makes  a  business  of 
writing  on  Irish  topics  for  the  American  news- 
papers is  a  clever  journalist,  T.  P.  O'Connor, 
member  of  Parliament,  representing  one  of  the 
[138] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

city  of  Liverpool  seats.  His  constituency  is 
largely  Irish,  and  he  has  been  elected  as  an  Irish 
Nationalist  for  thirty  years.  The  writer  spent 
a  day  among  the  Irish  of  Liverpool  last  August. 
They  are  extremely  poor,  having  been  landed  in 
this  English  city  after  the  famine,  and  employed 
mostly  as  laborers  on  ships  and  docks.  O'Connor 
has  long  become  altogether  West  British,  and  his 
writings  ought  not  to  be  accepted  by  American 
newspapers,  as  they  give  the  English  and  not 
the  Irish  point  of  view.  He  is  well  known  in  Lon- 
don as  a  hack  journalist,  and  for  ten  years  past  his 
tributes  to  the  British  army  have  been  nauseat- 
ing. The  four  leaders  of  the  party  who  are 
forcing  recruiting  are  Redmond,  Dillon,  Devlin 
and  O'Connor,  aided  by  William  O'Brien  of 
Cork.  All  but  Devlin  are  old  men,  dead  to  am- 
bition, doubtless  exhausted  by  the  long  struggle, 
and  ready  now  to  surrender  the  lives  of  the  young 
men  of  Ireland  in  return  for  a  few  legislative 
concessions.  They  follow  the  line  of  least  re- 
sistance, and  no  longer  oppose  the  pushing  young 
politicians  who  wish  to  advance  themselves  in 
English  society,  or  secure  employment  in  the 
British  civil  service. 

A  curious  confirmation  of  the  decadent  state 

[139] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

to  which  social  climbing  and  cringing  to  the  aris- 
tocracy has  brought  the  Irish  Party,  has  just 
come  to  hand.  The  Irish  Nationalists  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  have  been  saying  that 
at  last  the  country  was  going  to  have  its  first 
viceroy  under  Home  Rule,  and  he  would  prob- 
ably be  an  Irish  peer  recommended  by  an  Irish 
Government.  The  race  for  the  great  ofHce  under 
the  "Home  Rule  Act"  is  confined  to  two  aris- 
tocrats, one  the  keeper  of  the  king's  stables,  the 
other  a  polo  player,  both  noblemen.  The  follow- 
ing cable  dispatch  appeared  in  the  New  York 
Tribune: 

FIGHT  ON  FOR  POST  OF  IRISH  VICEROY 

NATIONALISTS  WANT  EARL  GRANARD,  CHURCHILL 
AIDS  LORD  WIMBORNE 

LONDON,  Dec.  14. — The  contest  between  Lord 
Wimborne  and  Earl  Granard  for  the  post  of  Viceroy 
of  Ireland,  which  Earl  Aberdeen  is  about  to  resign,  is 
the  most  exciting  feature  of  domestic  politics  at  the 
moment.  Both  already  hold  offices  in  the  government, 
and  it  is  understood  that  Wimborne  has  the  strongest 
pull  with  the  Cabinet.  Winston  Churchill  is  using  all 
his  efforts  to  secure  the  office  for  his  first  cousin. 

Granard  finds  his  main  support  among  the  Irish 
Nationalists,  who  do  not  care  overmuch  for  Churchill 
[140] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

or  his  relatives  and  think  that  the  appointment  of 
Granard,  an  Irishman,  first  Viceroy  under  Home  Rule 
would  be  appropriate  and  desirable.  Granard's  other 
chief  source  of  strength  is  from  the  Court,  where,  as 
master  of  the  horse,  he  has  made  himself  very  popular, 
and  although  in  theory  the  Court  does  not  interfere  in 
political  appointments,  it  can  often  put  in  a  decisive 
word  where  there  is  a  difficulty  of  choice. 

Since  Wimborne  has  represented  the  Irish  Govern- 
ment in  the  House  of  Lords  he  has  found  its  atmos- 
phere chilling.  His  success  with  the  British  polo  team 
in  the  United  States  was  achieved  under  the  utmost 
discouragement  at  the  hands  of  the  polo  authorities 
here,  actuated,  absurd  as  it  may  appear,  by  political 
hostility  because  he  was  a  supporter  of  the  Home  Rule 
Bill. 

Granard,  as  a  Catholic,  has  been  nominally  disquali- 
fied from  being  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  with  five- 
sixths  of  its  population  Catholic,  but  under  the  Home 
Rule  Bill  this  remnant  of  the  penal  laws  has  been  re- 
moved. Wimborne  is  a  Protestant,  and  it  is  contended 
in  his  favor  that  should  Sir  Edward  Carson  attempt 
to  fulfil  his  threats  of  revolt  in  Ulster  after  the  war 
it  would  be  advisable  that  the  Ulster  Orangemen 
should  not  have  the  excuse  of  charging  the  King's 
representative  in  Ireland  with  religious  bias,  which,  of 
course,  they  would  do. 

Premier  Asquith  has  rarely  had  a  more  awkward 
decision  to  make,  both  on  personal  and  ministerial 
grounds.  A  delicate  feature  of  the  case  is  that  the 
wives  of  the  Cabinet  ministers  and  leading  ladies  of 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

the  Court  and  society  are  pulling  every  imaginable 
string  on  behalf  of  their  particular  candidate.  It  is 
possible  that  the  Premier  may  find  himself  driven  in 
self-defence  to  put  both  Wimborne  and  Granard  aside 
and  select  some  compromise  candidate. 

Lord  Wimborne,  the  Englishman,  has  been 
given  the  high  office  in  preference  to  the  two 
Irish  peers  who  have  been  writing  for  it — Lords 
Fingall  and  Granard.  The  outgoing  viceroy, 
Lord  Aberdeen,  has  had  the  bad  taste  to  lay 
claim  to  an  almost  sacred  title.  He  wishes  to 
be  known  as  Marquis  of  Aberdeen  and  Tara. 
Tara  was  the  seat  of  the  high  kings  of  Ireland 
from  pre-Christian  times.  These  kings — "em- 
perors of  the  Scots"  or  "Gaels"  ("Imperator 
Scotorum") — were  always  known  as  kings  of 
Tara.  Hence,  all  Irish  Nationalists  regard  it  as 
an  outrage  and  almost  a  sacrilege  that  this  ven- 
erable name  should  be  tagged  on  to  a  British 
nobleman's  title.  The  spectacle  has  excited  even 
an  English  poet,  William  Watson,  to  write  a  de- 
nunciatory poem  against  Lord  Aberdeen.  It  has 
been  published  in  the  London  Evening  News: 

TARA  PROFANED 
Tara,  the  palace  of  Kings,  the  hill  of  fate ! 
Tara,  the  throne  of  song,  the  hallowed  shrine ! 
[  142  ] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Tagged  as  a  tassel  to  your  Marquisate, 

Made  an  appurtenance  of  your  house  and  line ! 

Who  cares  though  you  were  Marquis  ten  times  o'er? 

Bemarquis'd  or  bedecked — who  cares  a  straw  ? 
But  linked  with  Erin's  immemorial  lore, 

Her  memories  sacrosanct,  her  mount  of  awe ! 

Nay,  why  so  modest?  Why  so  humble?  Why 
Pause  in  your  too  meek  flight  on  Tara  Hill  ? 

"Marquis  of  Aberdeen  and  Sinai" — 

Consider:  were  not  this  ev'n  better  still? 

God  made  me  English — English  through  and 
through — 

But  bound  to  Ireland  by  one  bond  supreme. 
I  know  her  soul — something  unknown  to  you — 

Her  vision  and  her  passion  and  her  dream. 

I  know,  as  all  know  who  have  breathed  her  air, 
How  transient,  how  unrooted  in  her  heart, 

A  mere  ephemeral  thing  of  passage  there, 
Were  you  that  in  her  glories  claim  a  part. 

And  this  last  insult  before  gazing  men — 

This  ignominy  bitterest  yet  by  far — 
She  will  remember  and  forgive  not  when 

You  in  Time's  volume  an  erasure  are. 

You  soon  enough  will  be  by  her  forgot, 

Lodged  in  some  suburb  of  her  thoughts  were  you; 
[H3] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

But  this  will  as  a  proverb  live  of  what 

Dull,  sightless,  soulless  statesmanship  can  do. 

This  profanation,  blind  and  coarse  and  crude, 
Of  things  the  holiest  held  from  sea  to  sea — 

This  is  immortal  as  ineptitude; 
This  is  eternal  as  stupidity. 

And  even  to  this  from  all  the  ages  past, 

Through  all  the  long  self -torturing  Ireland  came: 
Left  to  her  disillusions  at  the  last, 

And  Tara  fallen  a  pendant  to  your  name ! 


[144] 


CHAPTER  XIV 

FOMENTING  RELIGIOUS  PREJUDICES 

THE  British  Government  is  straining  every  effort 
to  prejudice  the  Christian  population  of  neutral 
countries  against  Germany.  With  that  aim  in 
view,  for  the  first  time  in  centuries,  England  has 
sent  a  duly  accredited  ambassador  to  the  Vatican 
at  Rome.  The  English  newspapers  are  filled  with 
the  alleged  important  news  of  this  mission.  From 
Rome  appear  frequent  despatches  suggesting  that 
the  Turks  are  murdering  Christians  at  various 
points  and  driving  them  out  of  the  holy  city  of 
Jerusalem.  The  alleged  ill-treatment  and  im- 
prisonment of  the  venerable  Cardinal  Mercier  of 
Belgium  has  been  shown  to  be  merely  an  invented 
story  designed  to  inflame  Catholic  opinion.  The 
arrest  of  the  venerable  bishop  of  Lemberg  in 
Poland  by  the  Russians  is  not  an  invention,  but 
little  is  being  said  about  it  in  the  press  of  this 
country.  The  lies  have  to  some  extent  affected 
the  Irish  clergy  and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  are  be- 
lieved by  the  clergymen  in  the  United  States  and 
other  neutral  countries.  A  special  drive  along 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

this  line  is  being  made  by  English  publicists  to 
enlist  Catholic  support  and  sympathies,  as  the 
Roman  Catholic  population  in  North  and  South 
America  is  fully  one-half  of  all  of  the  people 
on  the  Western  Hemisphere.  If  English  diplo- 
macy at  Rome  could,  in  any  manner,  secure  a 
declaration  from  the  Vatican  denouncing  the 
"atrocities"  on  the  part  of  the  Germans,  the  Brit- 
ish authorities  figure  that  a  proclamation  of  that 
significance  would  be  worth  150,000  recruits 
and,  what  is  even  more  important,  give  England 
the  moral  support  of  a  majority  of  the  Christian 
world,  which  she  lacks  to-day.  All  sensible 
Catholics  should  be  on  guard  against  the  sinister 
news  bearing  Rome  dating,  and  they  should  re- 
sent the  British  effort  to  inspire  hatred  of  Ger- 
many along  religious  lines.  Catholics  can 
hardly  forget  that  the  people  of  Austria-Hungary 
are  nearly  all  Roman  Catholics  and  that  the  dual 
monarchy  has  been  the  bulwark  of  Catholicism 
in  Europe  in  much  the  same  way  that  the  Rus- 
sians have  supported  the  Greek  Orthodox 
Church. 

The  Austrians  have  long  been  loyal  and  de- 
voted supporters  of  the  Pope,  while  the  head  of 
the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  is  the  Czar  of  Rus- 
[146] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

sia,  who  now  appeals  to  "My  dear  Jews"  to  save 
the  Russian  autocracy  after  the  recent  massacres 
at  Kishiniff  and  other  places.  It  is  well  known 
the  present  French  Government  is  made  up 
chiefly  of  atheists  and  has,  practically,  destroyed 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  organization  in 
France.  In  Germany,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
exists  full  religious  freedom  and  liberty,  and  a 
very  large  and  devout  Catholic  population,  fully 
two-fifths  of  the  German  people. 

A  striking  instance  of  this  devotion  is  seen  in 
a  letter  printed  in  the  Koelnische  Volkszeitung 
last  month,  from  a  German  army  chaplain,  giv- 
ing an  impressive  description  of  service  held  for 
German  soldiers  in  a  church  in  France,  when 
after  Mass  the  local  cure  pathetically  urged  the 
French  people  to  emulate  the  example  of  the  sol- 
diers and  return  to  God.  The  letter  reads  as 
follows : 

The  cure  of lives  in  a  deserted  castle,  about  fif- 
teen minutes'  walk  from  the  church.  The  owner  of 
the  castle  furnished  a  few  rooms  for  him  when  the 
church's  bad  patronage  had  been  declared  property  of 
the  state  at  the  time  church  and  state  were  separated. 

I  held  service  in  his  church  on  Sunday.  It  was  filled 
to  overflowing.  To  the  right  sat  the  soldiers,  with  the 
officers  at  their  head ;  to  the  left  the  women  and  chil- 
[H7] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

dren  of  the  congregation.  I  delivered  a  short  sermon 
and  afterward  celebrated  High  Mass.  The  soldiers 
sang  their  German  songs  with  such  enthusiasm  that  it 
was  a  pleasure  to  hear  them  and  at  the  end  sang  the 
Doxology.  A  great  number  of  soldiers  and  their  of- 
ficers received  communion.  The  pastor  and  the  con- 
gregation did  not  take  their  eyes  away  from  the  un- 
usual performance.  After  the  service  the  soldiers 
marched  out  of  the  church  solemnly. 

As  I  stepped  into  the  vestry  room  the  French  priest 
looked  at  me  in  amazement.  He  said  nothing  and 
stepped  before  the  Communion  Table  in  order  to 
announce  the  Masses  for  the  following  week  to  the 
congregation.  Every  Monday  there  was  to  be  High 
Mass  for  the  soldiers  in  the  field,  every  Tuesday  High 
Mass  for  those  who  had  fallen.  Then  he  continued, 
more  loudly  and  with  greater  stress : 

"My  dear  parishioners.  I  will  not  keep  you  long  to- 
day. The  German  soldiers  preached  the  sermon  for 
you.  The  Germans  are  our  enemies,  it  is  true.  But 
a  nation  of  men  and  soldiers  who,  with  their  officers 
at  their  head,  hallow  Sunday  by  enthusiastic  songs, 
by  receiving  the  Holy  Sacrament,  by  their  pious  bear- 
ing, and  who  without  shame  or  fear  acknowledge  their 
faith  before  the  whole  world,  commands  our  respect 
and  admiration  and  makes  us  sad  when  we  think  of 
our  own  present  condition. 

"Poor  France,  once  so  great  and  now  so  humbled ! 
No,  we  may  not  murmur  nor  complain  because  God  is 
chastising  France  with  this  terrible  flail  of  war.  We 
[148] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

must  patiently  bear  this  punishment,  and  we  must  imi- 
tate the  example  of  the  German  people.  We  must 
return  to  the  God  of  our  fathers;  then  God  will  bless 
France  again." 


There  are  many  false  stories  circulating 
through  Ireland  charging  the  German  Govern- 
ment with  discriminating  against  Catholics  and, 
in  some  places,  actually  persecuting  them.  These 
writers  assert  that  the  German  bigots,  with  the 
spirit  of  hate  in  their  hearts,  in  penetrating  Bel- 
gium, deliberately  destroyed  convents,  shrines, 
churches  and  sacred  things.  The  writer  received 
some  letters  from  Ireland  where  people  actually 
believed  that  the  Germans  murdered  the  Sisters 
of  Charity  in  the  hospitals  and  never  permitted 
themselves  to  march  past  a  convent  without  abus- 
ing and  maltreating  the  nuns  and  burning  the 
buildings  to  the  ground. 

John  Redmond  has  been  the  principal  offender 
in  this  respect,  often  publicly  charging  the  Ger- 
mans with  being  the  destroyers  of  convents  and 
churches.  Therefore,  the  writer  asked  Doctor 
Dernburg  for  some  information  as  to  the  rela- 
tions of  Protestants  and  Catholics  in  Germany, 
the  feeling  and  attitude  of  the  government 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

toward  Roman  Catholics  and  received  the  fol- 
lowing interesting  reply: 

Of  all  the  nations  harboring  a  mixed  Protestant- 
Catholic  population,  Germany  has  the  largest  percent- 
age of  Catholics.  Indeed,  many  parts  of  the  country 
are  nearly  purely  Catholic  as,  for  instance,  the  old 
Archbishopric  of  Cologne,  the  Bishopric  of  Trier,  a 
very  large  part  of  Posnania,  the  upper  part  of  Silesia, 
as  well  as  the  greater  part  of  the  Kingdom  of  Bavaria. 
Two  of  the  four  German  Kings  and  their  houses  are 
Catholic,  namely  the  King  of  Bavaria  and  the  King 
of  Saxony,  and  if  a  change  in  the  throne  of  Wurttem- 
berg  occurs,  the  throne  will  fall  to  the  Catholic  line 
of  the  house  of  Urach. — Indeed,  more  than  one-third 
of  all  Germany  is  Catholic,  together  more  than  23 
million  people,  which  corresponds  to  the  representa- 
tion of  the  German  Catholics  in  the  Reichstag  who 
have  a  party  of  their  own  called  the  Centre  Party, 
that  musters  about  115  votes  out  of  a  total  of  397. 

It  stands  to  reason  that  in  such  a  community  the 
utmost  good  feeling  between  the  members  of  the  vari- 
ous confessions  is  a  necessary  condition  for  all  prog- 
ress, and  it  has,  therefore,  been  the  aim  of  the  Ger- 
man statesmen  (out  of  five  Chancellors,  the  third, 
Prince  von  Buelow,  was  a  very  devout  Catholic  and 
the  wife  of  the  fourth,  Princess  von  Buelow,  is  one 
also)  to  secure  to  both  confessions  the  utmost  freedom 
and  development  and  the  greatest  liberty  for  the  exer- 
cise of  their  creed.  The  greatest  noble  families  are 
Catholics.  The  Grand-Marshal  at  the  Court  of  the 
[150] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Empire,  Prince  Fuerstenberg,  is  a  Catholic ;  so  are  the 
Duke  of  Arenberg,  Salem  and  Croy,  and  others  too 
numerous  to  mention. 

So  ever  since  Prince  Bismarck  in  1878  made  a  per- 
manent settlement  with  the  Holy  See,  there  has  always 
been  a  perfect  equality  between  the  two  confessions, 
and  absolute  freedom  for  the  practice  of  their  devo- 
tion and  a  perfect  obliteration  of  all  confessional  lines 
as  far  as  the  government  of  the  country  is  concerned. 
In  Germany  nobody  is  asked  what  his  confession  is, 
no  discrimination  of  any  kind  is  made,  and  there  is  no 
country  in  the  world,  on  the  confession  of  Catho- 
lics of  all  nations,  that  is  more  friendly  and  more  im- 
partial than  Germany.  How  could  it  be  otherwise? 
In  the  Bavarian  Ministry  of  nine  members  just  one 
Protestant  holds  a  post,  and  the  Prime  Minister  has 
been  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Centre  Party  for 
twenty  years.  I  state  this  because  of  the  many  state- 
ments that  have  been  made  that  the  German  army  has 
especially  wrought  destruction  to  Catholic  convents, 
churches,  schools  and  to  the  clergy,  and  because  accu- 
sations of  this  nature  have  been  made  to  perverters  of 
public  opinion  in  America  against  my  Bavarian  coun- 
trymen. 

Now,  as  I  said  before,  Bavarians  are  mostly  Catho- 
lics, and  very  devout  ones  too,  and  the  invention  of 
such  stories  show  at  the  same  time  their  utter  falsity 
as  well  as  the  amazing  ignorance  of  those  who  pretend 
to  elucidate  the  American  public. 

All  those  stories  can  be  dismissed,  on  the  evidence 
presented,  as  absolutely  worthless,  and  they  simply 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

prove  that  the  effort  to  revile  Germany  in  any  possible 
way  does  not  stop  at  the  falsest  inventions. 

AN    ATROCITY   FABLE 

The  following  story,  an  absolute  "fake,"  ap- 
peared in  numerous  newspapers  throughout  Ire- 
land January  9,  1915: 

IRISH  NUNS  AT  YPRES 

HOW  THE  BRITISH  ARRIVED 

The  Weekly  Dispatch  of  Sunday  published  the  story 
of  Dame  Theresa  Howard,  O.S.B.,  a  niece  of  Mr. 
John  Redmond,  who  went  through  the  siege  of  Ypres 
with  fourteen  other  Irish  nuns  at  the  Royal  Benedic- 
tine Abbey  at  Ypres.  The  nuns  are  now  safely  lodged 
in  Oulton  Abbey,  Staffordshire. 

The  following  are  extracts  from  the  diary  of  Dame 
Theresa : — "Oh,  last  night,  it  was  awful.  For  a  long 
time  the  guns  went  on,  but  in  the  darkness  they  ap- 
proached and  entered — the  Uhlans  are  upon  us. 

"It  is  all  over  with  Ypres ;  the  guns  we  heard  all  yes- 
terday were  the  last  defence  of  the  Belgian  Army — or 
rather  police — and  they  were  only  a  hundred  against 
fifteen  hundred.  They  are  all  over  the  town,  and  the 
Burgomaster  is  a  prisoner.  What  is  going  to  happen? 

"The  German  occupation  was  becoming  more  and 

more  terrible.     Every  day  brought  fresh  atrocities, 

and  every  moment  we  thought  we  were  to  be  the  next 

victims,  and  we  would  hide  in  the  cellars  for  fear  they 

[152] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

should  see  us  in  the  convent  garden  or  at  the  windows. 

"We  were  actually  engaged  in  the  Litanies  with  the 
words,  'From  all  evil,  good  Lord  deliver  us/  etc.,  each 
Sister  joining  in  the  responses,  'Good  Lord,  deliver 
us/  with  a  full  soul,  when  we  suddenly  heard  the 
heavy  tramp,  tramp  of  soldiers,  and  the  sound  of  sing- 
ing. We  trembled,  thinking  of  the  terrible  Uhlans, 
answering  'God  Lord,  deliver  us/  in  their  midnight 
carouse,  but  judge  of  our  surprise  and  amazement 
when  we  found  out  that  it  was  an  English  song  min- 
gled with  our  cries  of  supplication,  came,  as  it  were, 
in  answer,  'Here  we  are,  here  we  are,  here  we  are, 
again.'  We  almost  joined  in,  but,  of  course,  we  dare 
not.  But  imagine  the  thrill  of  joy  that  went  through 
our  hearts.  Then  outside  in  the  streets  we  heard  the 
clamors  of  the  populace  joining  in  with  'Alo,  alo/ 
and  cries  of  joy.  We  were  just  wondering  in  our 
Irish  hearts  whether  or  not  it  was  an  Irish  regiment 
that  was  the  first  to  enter,  thinking  of  the  dear  old 
standard  with  the  harp  on  it,  of  the  days  of  the  Irish 
Brigade.  Suddenly  we  got  our  answer.  In  gruff 
brogue  we  heard  the  song  which  everyone  seems  to  be 
singing  everywhere,  'It's  a  long  way  to  Tipperary,  it's 
a  long  way  to  go.' 

"The  British  have  come  to  stop. 

"The  battle  is  raging  again.  Can  Ypres  fall  again? 
Wednesday,  28th  October — The  German  shells  fell  on 
the  town  to-day.  The  first  fell  in  the  sleepy  moat  just 
outside  the  ramparts.  We  have  now  to  live  in  our 
catacombs;  even  the  sanctuary  lamp  is  out,  and  the 
chapel  no  longer  contains  the  Blessed  Sacrament. 
[153] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

"It  was  no  longer  possible  to  stop  in  Ypres,  and  so 
we  determined  to  get  under  the  English  authorities  as 
soon  as  possible.  We  each  had  our  little  parcel. 
Everything  is  in  ruins." 

The  Bavarian  regiments,  ninety-eight  per  cent. 
Catholics,  accompanied  by  priests,  were  stationed 
near  the  Royal  Benedictine  Abbey  near  Ypres. 
The  closest  official  investigation  on  the  part  of 
the  archbishop  of  Cologne  confirms  the  claim  of 
the  German  authorities  to  the  effect  that  no  nun 
was  harmed,  all  were  treated  respectfully  by 
these  really  devout  Bavarians,  who  escorted  the 
Sisters  to  places  of  safety.  Fancy  pious  Sister 
Theresa,  the  good  niece  of  John  Redmond,  sup- 
plicating to  English  soldiers  and  being  saved  by 
them  from  the  Bavarian  Catholic  barbarians,  and 
the  dear  nuns  listening  to  the  White  Way  dis- 
trict London  cockney  song  of  "Tipperary"  as  a 
saving  melody  instead  of  "Adeste  Fidelis."  It 
is  enough  to  make  one  laugh  were  it  not  for  the 
horrible  use  in  Ireland  to  which  this  outrageous 
story  will  be  put. 

On  Sunday,  February  7,  1915,  Cardinal  Von 
Hartman,  of  Cologne,  addressing  a  vast  meeting 
of  Catholics  in  the  great  Cathedral  of  Cologne, 
said: 

[i54] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

The  Emperor  William  is  the  foremost  defender  of 
Christianity.  Throughout  the  world  we  no  longer 
know  parties.  In  the  words  of  the  Emperor,  "we 
know  only  Germans."  That  sentiment  finds  an  unani- 
mous echo  among  all  Germans  and  our  children  wher- 
ever found  in  all  sections  of  the  world.  Our  people 
are  as  one.  We  are  making  headway  in  the  West  and 
successfully  resisting  invasion  in  the  East,  and  God 
will  never  permit  atheistic  France,  nor  orthodox  Rus- 
sia, nor  jealous  England  to  destroy  the  religious  life 
of  the  Fatherland.  We  place  our  faith  in  this  just 
cause.  We  pledge  to  our  noble  empire  the  intrepid 
support  and  unfaltering  allegiance  of  the  26,000,000 
Catholic  subjects  of  the  German  Empire,  and  we  con- 
trast the  love,  regard  and  tolerance  of  the  Emperor 
for  our  people  during  the  past  twenty-six  years  of  his 
reign  with  the  persecutions  of  the  Christians  in  France 
and  the  Jews  in  Russia.  May  the  Ruler  of  Battles,  to 
whom  we  faithfully  pray,  continue  to  bring  victories 
to  the  brave  armies  of  our  soldiers ! 


[i55] 


CHAPTER  XV 

RECRUITING  THE  IRISH   NATIONAL  VOLUNTEERS 

IRELAND,  having  inherited  nothing  from  Eng- 
land except  sorrow  and  misery,  is  always  asked 
to  furnish  her  best  blood  for  her  exploiters 
whenever  their  empire  is  in  danger.  The  Ro- 
mans, too,  placed  their  slaves  in  the  front  of  the 
line.  Sixty  years  ago  the  Irish  were  forced  into 
the  British  war  against  Russia,  and  thousands 
of  them  perished  in  Crimea.  The  patriots  of  that 
day  protested,  as  they  do  to-day.  Irish  leaders 
then  forced  the  poor  peasants,  after  the  famine, 
to  lay  down  their  lives  for  England  in  return  for 
broken  promises,  in  the  same  way  and  by  the 
same  methods  that  the  present  leaders  are  forc- 
ing the  peasants  to-day  to  die  for  a  country  which 
has  only  wronged  them. 

The  following  street  ballad  of  the  Crimean  war 
period,  written  by  Charles  J.  Kickham  for  the 
purpose  of  discouraging  enlistments,  fits  the  pres- 
ent-day situation: 

[156] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

PATRICK  SHEEHAN 
My  name  is  Patrick  Sheehan, 
My  years  are  thirty-four, 
Tipperary  is  my  native  place, 
Nor  far  from  Galtymore ; 
I  came  of  honest  parents, 
But  now  they're  lying  low, 
And  many  a  pleasant  day  I  spent 
In  the  glen  of  Aherlow. 

My  father  died :  I  closed  his  eyes 

Outside  our  cabin  door  ; 

The  landlord  and  the  sheriff,  too, 

Were  there  the  day  before ; 

And  there  my  loving  mother 

And  sisters  three  also 

Were  forced  to  go  with  broken  hearts 

From  the  glen  of  Aherlow. 

For  three  long  months  in  search  of  work 

I  wandered  far  and  near ; 

I  went  then  to  the  poor-house 

For  to  see  my  mother  dear ; 

The  news  I  heard  nigh  broke  my  heart ; 

But  still,  in  all  my  woe, 

I  blessed  the  friends  who  made  their  graves 

In  the  glen  of  Aherlow. 

Bereft  of  home  and  kith  and  kin, 
With  plenty  all  around, 
I  starved  within  my  cabin, 
And  slept  upon  the  ground. 
[157] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

But  cruel  as  my  lot  was, 
I  ne'er  did  hardship  know, 
Till  I  joined  the  English  army, 
Far  away  from  Aherlow. 

"Rouse  up,  there,"  says  the  corporal, 

"You  lazy  Hirish  'ound ! 

Why  don't  you  hear,  you  sleepy  dog, 

The  call  to  arms  sound !" 

Alas!    I  had  been  dreaming 

Of  days  long,  long  ago ; 

I  woke  before  Sebastopol, 

And  not  in  Aherlow. 

I  groped  to  find  my  musket, 

How  dark  I  thought  the  night ! 

O,  blessed  God !  it  was  not  dark, 

It  was  the  broad  daylight. 

And  when  I  found  that  I  was  blind, 

My  tears  began  to  flow : 

I  longed  for  even  a  pauper's  grave 

In  the  glen  of  Aherlow. 

O  blessed  Virgin  Mary, 

Mine  is  a  mournful  tale : 

A  poor  blind  prisoner  here  I  am, 

In  Dublin's  dreary  jail, 

Struck  blind  within  the  trenches, 

Where  I  never  feared  the  foe ; 

And  now  I'll  never  see  again 

The  glen  of  Aherlow. 

[158] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

A  poor  neglected  mendicant, 

I  wandered  through  the  street  ; 

My  nine  months'  pension  now  being  out, 

I  beg  from  all  I  meet. 

As  I  joined  my  country's  tyrants, 

My  face  I'll  never  show 

Among  the  kind  old  neighbors 

In  the  glen  of  Aherlow. 

Then  Irish  youths,  dear  countrymen ! 
Take  heed  of  what  I  say : 
For  if  you  join  the  English  ranks 
You'll  surely  rue  the  day. 
And  whenever  you  are  tempted 
A  soldiering  to  go, 
Remember  poor  blind  Sheehan 
Of  the  glen  of  Aherlow. 

The  Irish  National  Volunteers,  organized  to 
defend  the  cause  of  national  Ireland,  numbered, 
before  the  war,  perhaps,  160,000  young  men,  the 
best  physically  and  mentally  in  Ireland.  They 
were  organized  in  battalions,  regiments  and  com- 
panies, drilled  frequently,  often  at  night,  and 
went  to  camp.  They  formed  the  body  in  the  Brit- 
ish Islands  out  of  which  real  soldiers  can  be  most 
quickly  made.  It  was  to  them  that  the  heads  of 
the  army  turned  eagerly,  and  it  was  to  them  that 
Mr.  Redmond  made  his  frantic  and  unpatriotic 
[i59] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

appeal  on  behalf  of  the  British  army.  Mr.  Red- 
mond, until  lately,  refused  to  encourage  or  en- 
dorse the  volunteers.  In  one  year  the  body  had 
grown  into  the  most  powerful  and  formidable 
organization  in  Ireland,  and  the  old  politicians 
trembled. 

In  the  interest  of  unity  and  harmony,  and  lest 
the  world  would  consider  them  factionists,  rather 
than  have  new  divisions  in  Ireland,  and  in  order 
to  present  a  solid  front  to  the  Orange  Tories, 
Mr.  Redmond  was  permitted  to  name  one-half 
of  the  directorate  and  members  of  the  executive 
board.  Ten  days  before  the  outbreak  of  war 
the  Scottish  Borderers,  a  regiment  of  the  King's 
troops,  had  fired  on  an  unarmed  crowd  in  a  Dub- 
lin street;  several  men  were  killed  and  a  number 
were  injured.  Ireland  was  in  a  ferment,  civil 
war  was  threatened,  and  the  leadership  of  Red- 
mond likely  to  close  in  disaster.  Then  the  great 
war  of  the  world  broke  forth  like  the  fury  of 
hell  and  the  more  mercurial  of  the  Irish  were 
convinced  that  the  "German  barbarian  hordes" 
were  at  their  cabin  doors.  Thereupon,  the  offi- 
cial leader  of  the  Irish  Nationalist  Party,  on  the 
floor  of  the  House  of  Commons,  pledged  the  Irish 
National  Volunteers  to  defend  the  shores  of  Erin 
[160] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

from  the  oncoming  Teutonic  hordes.  To  some 
extent  the  prestige  of  Mr.  Redmond  was  restored. 
Many  Celts  believed  his  proposition  to  the  gov- 
ernment sounded  fair  and  reasonable,  and  sup- 
ported his  declaration.  The  Volunteers  figured 
the  move  as  one  certain  to  bring  to  them  neces- 
sary arms.  Then  followed  the  unexpected  ap- 
pearance of  the  Irish  leader  demanding  that  the 
young  men  of  Ireland,  the  volunteers,  join  the 
British  army  and  die,  not  within  their  own  shores, 
but  in  Belgium  and  in  France,  and  under  the  col- 
ors of  their  oppressors.  His  best  friends  write 
over  to  this  country  privately  and  acknowledge 
his  "fearful  blunder,"  but  argue  that  it  is  neces- 
sary "to  save  his  face  for  the  sake  of  the  Home 
Rule  Bill  after  the  war,"  and  adding  that  few 
of  the  Volunteers  are  recruiting  anyway. 

Mr.  Redmond  and  his  recruiting  allies  are 
working  to  overthrow  the  constitution  of  the 
Irish  Volunteers,  which  reads : 

1.  To  secure  and  maintain  the  rights  and  lib- 
erties of  all  the  people  of  Ireland. 

2.  To  train,  discipline  and  equip  for  this  pur- 
pose an  Irish  volunteer  force. 

3.  To  unite  in  the  service  of  Ireland  the  men 
of  every  creed,  party  and  class. 

[161] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

No  funds  would  have  been  sent  from  this  side 
except  for  the  principles  outlined  above.  Despite 
all  the  appeals  of  Mr.  Redmond,  the  complete 
machinery  of  the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party,  the 
power  of  the  government,  the  promise  of  Home 
Rule,  a  vast  recruiting  and  agitation  fund,  dire 
poverty  and  distress  increased  by  the  war,  unem- 
ployment, lying  stories  of  German  brutalities,  not 
one  company,  regiment  or  battalion  has  voted  to 
recruit  or  enlist  in  the  army.  A  few  thousand 
individuals  have  been  secured,  but  the  appeal  has 
altogether  failed,  as  admitted  by  the  London 
press.* 

As  the  London  Times  has  admitted,  the  whole 
of  Ireland  is  under  martial  law.  The  censorship 
is  rigid.  The  patriotic  newspapers  are  being  sup- 
pressed by  the  government,  including  The  Irish 
Volunteer,  the  organ  of  the  National  Volunteers. 
The  weekly  journal,  Sinn  Fein  ("Ourselves 
Alone"),  and  other  papers  have  been  destroyed. 
The  Irish  World  of  New  York,  with  a  large  list 
of  readers  in  Ireland,  has  been  prohibited  from 

*The  Belfast  News  of  January  14,  1915,  which  is  the  leading 
Ulster  daily  newspaper,  jeeringly  says  that  Nationalist  Ireland 
has  not  furnished  up  to  this  date  more  than  from  3,000  to  4,000 
recruits,  despite  the  fervent  appeals  of  the  Irish  members  of 
parliament. 

[162] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

entering  Ireland.  A  number  of  persons  have 
been  sent  to  prison  for  distributing  patriotic  let- 
ters and  pamphlets.  Many  of  the  Irish  National 
Volunteer  companies  have  changed  their  meet- 
ing places,  and  in  secret  are  pledging  eternal 
fealty  to  the  cause  of  Irish  freedom.  More  than 
70,000  men  have  met  within  a  month,  and,  by 
resolution,  have  bound  themselves  to  abide  by 
the  following  declaration  of  policy  hereafter : 

1.  To  maintain  the  right  and  duty  of  the  Irish 
nation  henceforward  and  to  provide  for  its  own 
defence  by  means  of  a  permanent  armed  and 
trained  volunteer  force. 

2.  To  unite  the  people  of  Ireland  on  the  bases 
of  Irish  nationality  and  a  common  national  in- 
terest ;  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  nation  and 
to  resist  with  all  our  strength  any  measures  tend- 
ing to  bring  about  or  perpetuate  disunion  or  the 
partition  of  our  country. 

3.  To  resist  any  attempt  to  force  the  men  of 
Ireland  into  military  service  under  any  govern- 
ment until  a  free  national  government  is  empow- 
ered by  the  Irish  people  themselves  to  deal  with 
it. 

4.  To  secure  the  abolition  of  the  system  of 
governing  Ireland  through  Dublin  Castle  and  the 

[163] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

British  military  power,  and  the  establishment  of 
a  national  government  in  its  place. 

The  Volunteers  never  sing  the  words  of  the 
English  music-hall  song,  "It's  a  Long  Way  to 
Tipperary."  The  air  is  a  fair  marching  tune,  but 
the  words  and  sentiment  are  un-Irish.  Songs  of 
Piccadilly  and  Leicester  Square  do  not  appeal  to 
the  hearts  of  Irish  mothers.  They  know,  if  the 
children  recruit,  not  only  will  the  road  to  Tip- 
perary be  mighty  long  from  Europe,  but  that 
most  of  their  sons,  their  sole  support,  will  never 
live  to  see  Tipperary  again. 

"TIPPERARY" 

Who  is  it  stands  in  front  of  the  door? 

Mary  O'Fay,  Mother  O'Fay. 
An'  what  is  she  watching  an'  waiting  for? 

Och,  none  but  her  soul  can  say. 

There's  a  list  in  the  post  office  long  and  black, 

With  tidings  bad  and  woeful  sad ; 
The  names  of  the  boys  who'll  ne'er  come  back, 

An'  one  is  her  darling  lad. 

We  showed  her  the  list :  but  she  cannot  read, 
So  we  told  her  true,  yes,  we  told  her  true, 

Her  old  eyes  stared  till  they'd  almost  bleed, 
An'  she  swore  that  none  of  us  knew. 
[164] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

She's  waiting  now  for  Father  O'Toole, 
Till  he  goes  her  way  at  the  noon  of  day. 
*  *  *  * 

WTho  is  it  sprawls  upon  the  sod 

At  the  break  o'  day?    It's  Mickey  O' Fay. 

His  eyes  glare  up  to  the  walls  of  God, 
And  half  of  his  head  is  blown  away. 

What  is  he  doing  in  that  strange  place, 

Torn  and  shred,  and  murdered  dead  ? 
He's  singin'  the  psalm  of  the  fighting  race 

And  his  soul  soars  wide  o'erhead. 

Who  shall  we  blame  for  the  awful  thing — 

For  the  blood  that  flows  and  the  heart- wrung  throes  ? 

Kaiser,  or  Czar,  statesmen  or  King, 
Och,  leave  it  to  Him  Who  knows ! 

The  Irish  National  Volunteers  have  before 
them  the  glorious  example  of  the  Volunteers  of 
1782,  who  achieved  the  legislative  independence 
of  Ireland.  They  first  organized  in  the  Protes- 
tant Church  of  Dungannon,  County  Tyrone,  all 
or  nearly  all  Protestants.  They  demanded  liberty 
for  Ireland.  England  was  being  defeated  by 
America  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  and 
dreaded  another  insurrection  in  Ireland.  She 
finally  yielded,  and  on  the  16th  day  of  April,  1782, 
[165] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Henry  Grattan  moved  the  declaration  of  rights, 
which  made  Ireland  free  and  prosperous  for  a 
brief  period  of  twenty  years,  when  the  infamous 
act  of  union  with  England  was  formed.* 

Grattan's  amendment  for  legislative  independ- 
ence, as  adopted,  follows: 

That  the  kingdom  of  Ireland  is  a  distinct  kingdom, 
with  a  parliament  of  her  own,  the  sole  legislature 
thereof;  that  there  is  no  body  of  men  competent  to 
make  laws  to  bind  the  nation,  but  the  king,  lords,  and 
commons  of  Ireland,  nor  any  parliament  which  hath 
any  authority  or  power  of  any  sort  whatever  in  this 
country,  save  only  the  parliament  of  Ireland :  to  as- 
sure His  Majesty,  that  we  humbly  conceive  that  in  this 
right  the  very  essence  of  our  liberty  exists,  a  right 
which  we,  on  the  part  of  all  the  people  of  Ireland,  do 
claim  as  their  birthright,  and  which  we  cannot  yield 
but  with  our  lives. 

After  England  was  forced  to  capitulate  to  the 
United  States,  two  years  after  the  surrender  of 
Cornwallis  at  Yorktown,  she  proceeded  to  quar- 
rel with  Ireland.  Content  seemed  to  reign  in  that 
country.  As  year  by  year  her  commerce  gained 

*Even  under  the  Union  the  legal  and  constitutional  title  of 
the  British  kingdoms  is  "The  Kingdoms  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland."  This  title  should  be  given  on  all  official  documents. 
But  as  time  goes  on  the  kingdom  of  Ireland  is  left  more  and 
more  in  the  background. 

[166] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

and  her  industries  throve,  the  spirit  of  English 
trade  jealousies  was  enkindled  and  the  speedy 
ruin  of  Irish  commerce  was  resolved  on.  Eng- 
land played  Ireland  false  as  soon  as  the  Volun- 
teers laid  down  their  arms.  Grattan  trusted  the 
word  of  England  on  the  terms  of  the  final  adjust- 
ment. The  history  of  this  sordid  and  wretched 
betrayal  of  the  national  agreement  is  confirmed 
by  all  historians,  including  Gladstone  and  Morley. 
Eighty  thousand  soldiers  were  let  loose  on  an 
unarmed  and  helpless  people  to  destroy  them  at 
will.  Our  American  correspondents,  without  ex- 
ception, returning  from  Belgium,  have  told  us 
that  the  stories  of  German  atrocities  are  false. 
But  the  story  of  English  atrocities  in  Ireland  in 
1796  are  confirmed  by  all  historians. 

I  quote  from  one  of  the  most  careful  authori- 
ties, A.  M.  Sullivan: 

Irresponsible  power  was  conferred  on  the  military 
officers  and  local  magistracy.  The  yeomanry,  mainly 
composed  of  Orangemen,  were  quartered  on  the  most 
Catholic  districts,  while  the  Irish  militia  regiments 
suspected  of  any  sympathy  with  the  population  were 
shipped  off  to  England  in  exchange  for  foreign  troops. 
The  military  tribunals  did  not  wait  for  the  idle  for- 
malities of  the  civil  courts.  Soldiers  and  civilians, 
yeomen  and  townsmen,  against  whom  the  informer 
[167] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

pointed  his  finger,  were  taken  out  and  summarily  ex- 
ecuted. Ghastly  forms  hung  upon  the  thickset  gib- 
bets, not  only  in  the  market  places  of  the  country 
towns  and  before  the  public  prisons,  but  on  all  the 
bridges  of  the  metropolis.  The  horrid  torture  of  pick- 
eting, and  the  blood-stained  lash,  were  constantly  re- 
sorted to,  to  "extort  accusations  or  confessions."  Lord 
Holland  gives  us  a  like  picture  of  "burning  cottages, 
tortured  backs,  and  frequent  executions."  "The  fact 
is  incontrovertible,"  he  says,  "that  the  people  of  Ire- 
land were  driven  to  resistance  (which,  possibly,  they 
meditated  before)  by  the  free  quarters  and  excesses  of 
the  soldiery,  which  were  such  as  are  not  permitted  in 
civilized  warfare  even  in  an  enemy's  country.  Dr. 
Dickson,  Lord  Bishop  of  Down,  assured  me  that  he 
had  seen  families  returning  peaceably  from  Mass  as- 
sailed without  provocation  by  drunken  troops  and  yeo- 
manry, and  their  wives  and  daughters  exposed  to 
every  species  of  indignity,  brutality,  and  outrage,  from 
which  neither  his  (the  bishop's)  remonstrances,  nor 
those  of  other  Protestant  gentlemen,  could  rescue 
them. 

No  wonder  the  gallant  and  humane  Sir  John  Moore 
— appalled  at  the  infamies  of  that  lustful  and  brutal 
soldiery,  and  unable  to  repress  his  sympathy  with  the 
hapless  Irish  peasantry — should  have  exclaimed,  "If 
I  were  an  Irishman,  I  would  be  a  rebel !" 

THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  CASUALTY  LISTS 

In  Ireland  the  poor  people  are  waking  up  to 
[168] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

the  fact  that  the  British,  now,  as  always,  put  the 
Irish  in  the  forefront.  Although  they  form  a 
small  percentage  of  the  army,  as  well  as  of  the 
British  population,  the  daily  mortality  rate 
among  the  Irish  troops  on  the  battlefield  reaches 
an  abnormally  high  proportion. 

The  London  Times  publishes  daily  a  list  of  the 
killed  and  wounded,  the  preponderating  names 
being  Irish.  We  have  before  us  a  copy  of  the 
London  Times  of  Friday,  January  8,  1915,  which 
gives  a  list  of  the  killed  and  wounded  reported 
in  one  day. 

IN  THE  RANKS 

The  following  casualties  among  non-commis- 
sioned officers  and  men  of  the  expeditionary  force 
are  reported  from  the  base.  Every  man  is  a 
private  unless  otherwise  described: 

UNDER  DATE  OF  NOVEMBER  24. 

KILLED. 

ROYAL  SCOTS  FUSILIERS. 

Ashcroft,  10701  J.  Givens,  6247  T. 

Beattie,  10816  J.  Graham,  9789  P. 

Bruce,  10057  Drmmr  T.  Hacker,  10879  A. 

Clark,  10809  Cpl.  D.  Hagan,  10274  H. 

Coll.  9055  D.  Harris,    10504  A. 

Collins,  6558  C.  Harris,  11040  F. 

Connor,  9419  L.  Hendry,  9942  J. 

Doran,  9708  W.  Hooton,  9137  Lce.-Cpl.  W. 

Drysdale,  10924  S.  Hughes,  10760  T. 

Gillet,  7199  A.  Johnston,  9276  J. 

[I69] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Johnstone,  10799  E.  Mooney,  9814  J. 

Keatley,  10489  H.  Morgan,  10683  F. 

King,  9946  T.  Nelson,  5776  Sergt.  J. 

Laird,  9861  J.  Oglivie,  10282  W. 

Lawrence,  8676  A.  Page,  10722  D. 

Lindop,  10692  G.  Parsons,  10170  C. 

Lunn,  9711  A.  Provis,  9291  W. 

Lunn,  9208  T.  Roper,  10678  A.  V. 

MacGuinness,  10403  J.  Shearman,  9233  H. 

McAuliffe,  9331  J.  Smith,  10313  W. 

McBride,  10128  J.  Stringer,  6420  Sergt.  H. 

McCartney,   5753   R.  Taylor,  8864  Lce.-Sergt.  R. 

McLaughlin,  9943  J.  Watson,  10025  Cpl.  W. 

Mallon,  9796  R.  White,  10229  Cpl.  H. 

Mayhew,  9411  Bndsmn.  E.  Wilson,  8698  J. 

Miles,  8332  Lce.-Cpl.  T.               Wood,  10391  H. 

Mills,  8071  Lce.-Sergt.  F.  Woodfield,  5243  Co.  Qrmr. 

Minter,  9751  W.  Sergt.  T. 
Monger,  10648  J. 

KING'S  OWN  SCOTTISH  BORDERERS. 

Boath,  8958  F.  Keegan,  5853  Corp.  W. 

Brown,  7609  J.  Nelson,  5840  Lce.-Corp.  J. 

Cairns,  11333  J-  Norton,   11889  C. 

Carty,  10048  J.  Smith,  7420  D. 

Cook,  8394  H.  Smy,  9417  Lce.-Corp.  F. 

Dawson,  8149  W.  Turner,  11647  B. 

Elliott,  9127  A.  Urch,  10456  R. 
Goodman,  11174  W. 

SEAFORTH  HIGHLANDERS. 

Black,  8667  Lce.-Cpl.  J.  Matheson,  676  Drumr.  R. 

Campbell,  9470  T.  O'Brien,  8662  J. 

Devlin,  8128  J.  Park,  8115  W. 

Docherty,  6871  J.  Reid,  9349  Lce.-Sergt.  D. 

Findlay,  6960  J.  Robertson,  7594  J. 

Hambly,  6240  C.  Ross,  6428  D. 

Hislop,  6643  G.  Salmond,  7882  C. 

Irving,  6481  J.  Solers,  10597  J- 

Kirkwood,  6785  J.  Thomas,  6899  J. 


MacAulay,  6893  J.  Thompson,  9759  J. 

McKinnon,  6369  N.  Walls,  1461  A. 

Mackie,  7150  A. 

[170] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

OTHER  REGIMENTS. 

Brooke,  6506  Sergt.  W.,  Royal  Engineers. 

Byrne,  4108  G.,  Irish  Guards. 

Gould,  28767  Corporal  J.  D.,  Royal  Engineers. 

DIED  OF  WOUNDS. 

Campbell,  6460  T.,  Royal  Scots  Fus. 

Chambers,  5578  Col.-Sergt.  P.,  Royal  Scots  Fus. 

Couper,  9128  W.,  Coldstream  Guards. 

Dix,  2537  Trpr.  J.,  6th  Dragoons  (attached  ist  Life  Gds.). 

Drumm,  2667  F.,  Irish  Guards. 

Grahame,  62588  Gunr.  A.  G.,  Royal  Field  Artillery. 

Hanley,  6741  H.,  Scots  Guards. 

Harrison,  6745  H.  J.,  Coldstream  Gds. 

Henson,  6067  Lce.-Corpl.  T.  G.,  4th  Dragoon  Gds. 

Innes,  9732  W.,  Gordon  Highrs. 

Kean,  8789  C.,  Scots  Guards. 

Maclntyre,  10501  Lce.-Corpl.  R.,  Royal  Scots  Fus. 

McCormack,  4094  J.,  Irish  Guards. 

McDonagh,  3310  J.,  Irish  Guards. 

North,  5759  Trpr.  T.  W.,  ist  Dragoon  Gds.  (attached  ist  Life 

Guards). 

Pumphrey,  2265  J.  R.,  Northd  Hussars. 
Randell,  7926  H.,  Scots  Guards. 
Riordan,  3728  J.,  Irish  Guards. 


•fcillefc  f  n  ©ne  Dag 

Irish  Names 42 

All  Others .77 


[171] 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  WOMEN  OF  IRELAND 

IN  MANY  parts  of  Ireland  there  is  only  one  male 
left  to  a  family.  The  mothers  of  Ireland  are 
opposed  to  losing  the  last  boy  for  England.  Dele- 
gations of  noble  women  from  Ireland  have  come 
to  America  appealing  to  their  countrywomen  to 
write  letters  to  Irish  families  urging  them  to  re- 
fuse their  children  for  the  slaughter.  They  dare 
not  take  the  platform  in  Ireland  any  longer  or 
use  the  Irish  newspapers,  as  the  country  is  under 
martial  law  and  any  open  effort  to  prevent  re- 
cruiting is  punishable  as  an  act  of  treason  to 
the  Crown. 

These  women  have  been  holding  meetings  in 
New  York  and  various  cities,  largely  attended  by 
earnest,  intelligent,  refined  women  of  Irish  ex- 
traction. In  pathetic  interest,  education  and  en- 
tertainment these  weekly  gatherings  are  unique 
and  novel  even  in  jaded  New  York,  but  the  care- 
less or  hostile  press  gives  them  no  attention. 

One  of  these  many  meetings  of  women  was 
held  the  other  night  in  the  Blue  Room  of  the  Hotel 
[172] 


SARAH  CURRAN 

FIANCEE    OF   ROBERT    EMMET 

"She  is  far  from  the  land  where  her  young  hero  sleeps, 

And  lovers  around  her  are  sighing, 
But  coldly  she  turns  from  their  gaze  and  weeps, 

For  her  heart  in  his  grave  is  lying." 

— THOMAS  MOORE. 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

McAlpin,  with  three  well-known  New  York 
women  in  charge — Dr.  Gertrude  Kelly,  Mary 
Atwood  Tabor  and  Dr.  Madge  McGuinnis. 
Emily  Gray  gave  selections  on  an  Irish  harp. 
One  of  the  speakers  was  the  venerable  Margaret 
Moore,  who  went  to  prison  with  Parnell  in  1879. 
The  old  lady  preserves  a  wonderful,  clear  mind, 
and  her  speech  was  accorded  a  great  reception. 
She  said : 

You  have  been  told  that  I  stand  here  to-night  to 
represent  the  past.  It  is  not  a  dead  past,  however. 
It  is  full  of  inspiration,  hope  and  encouragement, 
which  we  now  hope  to  see  grow  stronger  and  greater 
in  the  dawn  of  a  new  day  of  freedom  for  Ireland. 

Women  always  came  to  the  rescue  in  Ireland  when 
Ireland  needed  them.  When  the  Milesians  came  to 
Ireland,  Queen  Scotia  and  her  three  daughters  fought 
in  the  field.  She  fell  in  battle;  and  from  that  time 
on  there  never  has  been  a  day  when  women  were  not 
ready  and  willing  to  strike  for  Ireland's  cause.  The 
women  of  Limerick  took  their  place  beside  the  men. 
Then  came  another  day  of  spirit  for  Ireland. 

The  Land  League  came.  At  first  the  Land  League 
was  scoffed  at.  Then  the  government  became  uneasy 
about  its  power.  Then  they  passed  the  Coercion  Act. 
Then  some  of  the  leaders  were  taken  up.  It  was  in 
these  days  that  Michael  Davitt  could  not  bear  to  see 
her  work  go  down  in  destruction.  He  could  not  bear 
[i73] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

to  see  the  flag  of  freedom  go  down  in  the  dust  and 
be  trampled  on  by  its  enemies.  He  knew  how  brave 
his  mother  was  in  the  days  of  eviction.  He  remem- 
bered the  bravery  of  the  women  of  the  Fenian  days. 
And  he  called  on  the  women  of  Ireland  to  come  for- 
ward in  Ireland's  danger. 

Since  I  was  a  baby  I  was  interested  in  everything 
for  the  welfare  of  my  native  land. 

In  those  days  stones  were  thrown  at  us,  not  by  us. 
We  did  not  mind  that;  they  did  us  no  harm.  The 
Land  League  grew  apace.  One  can  hardly  understand 
how  the  dead  hearts  of  the  people  seemed  to  revive  as 
they  knew  that  the  women  were  standing  behind  the 
men,  and  the  men  could  not  turn  back  on  the  onward 
march  because  of  the  women  who  stood  behind  them. 
I  had  believed  that  Ireland's  chains,  rusted  by  the 
blood  and  tears  of  centuries,  were  in  such  a  condition 
that  even  a  woman's  weak  hands  could  break  them 
asunder. 

Then  Mr.  Parnell  came.  I  would  like  to  make  a 
personal  remark  here.  While  some  newspapers  spoke 
of  me  as  going  to  jail  for  rioting,  I  never  was  in  a 
riot.  I  never  threw  a  stone  in  my  life.  I  went  to  jail 
for  attempting  to  "excite  disaffection  in  the  hearts  of 
Her  Majesty's  subjects." 

The  women  did  their  work  gloriously.  We  worked 
so  well  and  so  strong  that  we  were  able  to  bring  about 
the  downfall  of  the  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland — 
Buckshot  Forster. 

We  have  seen  strange  changes  in  Ireland  since  those 
days.  We  women  did  not  give  up  the  fight.  The 
[174] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

men  came  forward  when  they  got  out  of  jail  and  they 
took  the  banner  from  us,  and  they  did  not  even  thank 
us  for  holding  it  for  them. 

To-day  we  are  facing  a  greater  crisis  than  ever. 
Ireland  must  keep  her  men  at  home,  and  every  Irish- 
man and  Irishwoman  in  this  country  and  in  Ireland 
should  be  aware  of  the  many  reasons  why  Ireland 
should  never  fight  for  England.  There  has  been  more 
blood  shed  by  England  and  for  England  than  would 
buy  freedom  for  the  whole  of  Europe.  That  day  must 
end.  If  Irish  blood  is  shed  it  must  be  shed  for  Ire- 
land only.  Men  calling  themselves  Irishmen  will  dare 
to  come  forward  and  ask  the  youth  of  Ireland  to  join 
and  become  corrupted  by  the  most  immoral  army  in 
Europe. 

Referring  to  Lord  Roberts,  Mrs.  Moore  said: 

I  am  glad  they  did  not  put  him  in  Westminster  Ab- 
bey. That  place  is  desecrated  enough  as  it  is.  This 
Christian  for  whom  they  played  "Onward,  Christian 
Soldiers" — he  in  a  letter  to  the  departments  of  India 
demanded  with  authority  that  they  should  see  to  it 
that  a  certain  number  of  attractive  healthy  women 
should  be  provided  for  the  entertainment  of  the  sol- 
diers. 

Are  Irishwomen  to  let  their  sons  go  into  any  army 
where  their  morals  will  be  destroyed?  We  are  very 
proud  of  Irishmen  who  refuse  to  go  forth  to  fight  in 
this  war.  Even  if  they  are  unemployed  they  will  know 
it  is  better  to  starve  at  home. 
[175] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

We  know  that  before  this  war  began  Roberts 
went  to  King  George  and  whispered  in  his  ear, 
"Don't  sign  that  Home  Rule  Bill  or  the  army  will 
revolt."  Then  came  French  and  others,  and  they 
said,  "We  will  not  lead  troops  against  the  North." 
And  a  few  days  afterward  they  wanted  the  very 
men  they  threatened  to  fight  for  "their  King  and 
country."  I  deny  that  the  Irish  have  a  king. 
They  have  a  country  only,  and  let  them  look  to 
that.  Let  them  keep  their  country  free  an'd  keep 
her  in  the  proper  place.  Let  them  not  forget 
their  history.  Let  them  not  forget  their  ruins. 

Let  us  hold  up  the  hands  of  our  sisters  in  Ire- 
land. Let  us  hold  up  the  hands  of  the  men  in 
Ireland.  And  with  God's  help  we  will  try  to  help 
them.  We  want  freedom  for  the  land  that  bore 
us. 

Mrs.  Padraig  Colum  of  Dublin  read  a  speech 
dealing  in  a  comprehensive  way  with  the  state  of 
things  in  Ireland,  and  the  Irish  volunteer  move- 
ment. 


[176] 


THEOBALD  WOLFE  TONE 

"The  connection  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  is  the 
curse  of  the  Irish  nation,  while  it  lasts  my  country  cannot 
be  free  nor  happy.  Success  in  the  eyes  of  the  vulgar,  fixes  its 
merits.  Washington  succeeded,  while  Kosciusko  failed.  I 
await  the  Death  which  awaits  me." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

LEADERS  OF  IRELAND 

THE  little  island  across  the  sea  has  produced  more 
than  her  share  of  heroes,  patriots,  poets,  dram- 
atists, statesmen  and  soldiers,  and  by  the  same 
token  she  has  managed  to  furnish  an  unusual 
number  of  weak  leaders,  traitors  and  inform- 
ers. For  every  Irishman  sent  to  the  scaffold  or 
the  dungeon,  there  has  been  another  to  swear  his 
life  away.  It  was  the  bribery  and  the  weakness 
of  some  of  the  Irish  princes  which  enabled  the 
Anglo-Normans  to  extend  their  sway  over  large 
portions  of  Ireland  in  the  twelfth  century.  In 
the  next  six  hundred  years  of  her  history  we  find 
the  work  of  martyrs  and  patriots  checked  or  de- 
stroyed by  treason  in  her  own  ranks.  The  life 
of  Robert  Emmet  might  have  been  saved  but  for 
the  wretched  informer  who  spied  on  his  last  meet- 
ing with  the  beautiful  Sarah  Cur  ran.  The  United 
Irishmen  Society  was  struck  a  fatal  blow  in  1798 
by  the  treachery  of  one  of  its  members,  Thomas 
Reynolds,  which  caused  the  death  of  Lord  Ed- 
ward Fitzgerald.  This  rebellion  was  watched  by 
[i77] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

George  Washington  from  America  with  the  deep- 
est interest  and  sympathy,  as  some  of  his  friends 
in  the  American  revolution  were  participants,  and 
he  was  grieved  at  Mount  Vernon,  the  last  year 
of  his  life,  when  he  heard  of  the  failure  of  the 
revolution  of  1798.  Lord  Cornwallis,  whom 
Washington  had  taken  prisoner  at  Yorktown, 
was  the  English  commander  who  crushed  the 
men  of  '98.  The  hero  was  Wolfe  Tone,  who, 
captured  after  heroic  defence,  begged  that 
he  be  shot  like  a  soldier,  not  hanged  as  a  felon. 
His  petition  was  rejected  and  he  was  said  to  have 
committed  suicide,  although  some  writers  insist 
that  he  was  murdered  by  his  jailers,  who  feared 
openly  to  kill,  except  as  a  soldier,  a  man  who  was 
captured  in  the  uniform  of  a  French  colonel. 

The  Act  of  Union  1802  between  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  was  forced  through  by  shameless 
bribery  and  promises  of  office.  Lord  Castlereagh 
purchased  twenty-five  Irish  members  of  Parlia- 
ment, the  necessary  number  to  pass  the  measure. 
The  two  men  who  betrayed  their  unfortunate 
country  to  England  were  Lord  Castlereagh  and 
Lord  Clare.  The  first  died  by  his  own  hand,  the 
second,  bitterly  regretting  his  infamy,  died  of  a 
broken  heart. 

[178] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Lord  Byron,  the  great  poet,  when  he  heard  the 
fate  of  Castlereagh,  wrote : 

"So  Castlereagh  has  cut  his  throat !  The  worst 
Of  this  is — that  he  cut  his  country's  the  first! 
So  he  has  cut  his  throat  at  last !    He !  Who  ? 
The  man  who  cut  his  country's  long  ago." 

Fourteen  new  government  places  were  created 
for  Irish  members.  Thirty-two  new  peers  were 
created,  every  one  being  an  Irish  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons  who  had  voted  for  the  Act 
of  Union.  Something  like  $2,500,000  was  spent 
in  bribery  by  the  Crown  agents.  The  salaried 
places  given  to  deserting  opposition  members 
amounted  to  $340,000  per  annum.  Sixty-one 
titles  were  granted.  Of  the  162  men  who  voted 
for  the  union,  116  held  government  places  by 
1803,  and  34  bought  fine  estates. 

After  the  Young  Irelanders  were  driven  to 
death  or  prisons  in  1848,  the  leaders  were  John 
Sadlier  of  Tipperary  and  William  Keogh  of 
Athlone.  The  first  was  a  banker,  the  second  a 
lawyer.  The  two  led  the  Catholic  defense  move- 
ment and  were  alluded  to  sarcastically  by  the 
English  papers  as  the  "Pope's  Brass  Band."  The 
pair  were  strict  Constitutionalists,  viewed  with 
suspicion  by  the  crushed  remnants  of  the  revolu- 
[i79] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

tion,  but  as  reactions  always  follow  revolutions, 
the  patriots  could  only  look  on.  The  issue  of  the 
hour  was  the  Tenant  Rights  Bill  and  opposition 
to  the  British  Government.  Sadlier,  Keogh  and 
O'Flaherty  held  the  balance  of  power.  The  fate 
of  a  new  ministry  was  in  their  hands  when  ter- 
rible news  arrived  from  London  in  1852  that  the 
Irish  brigade  in  Parliament  had  sold  their  coun- 
try for  the  jobs.  John  Sadlier  was  Lord  of  the 
Treasury,  William  Keogh  was  made  Irish  Solici- 
tor-General, and  Edmond  O'Flaherty  was  ap- 
pointed Commissioner  of  Income  Tax.  The 
argosy  containing  patriotic  hopes  was  wrecked. 
As  time  went  on  the  Irish  drew  away  from  Sadlier 
in  horror.  Confidence  in  his  banks  was  de- 
stroyed, and  in  the  dead  of  the  night  he  walked 
out  of  his  English  town  house.  Early  in  the 
morning  passers-by  noticed  a  body  lying  on 
Hampstead  Heath.  John  Sadlier  had  taken 
poison  and  died  by  his  own  hand.  The  news  cre- 
ated a  frightful  panic  in  Ireland.  Mobs  of  coun- 
try people  stormed  the  Sadlier  banks,  only  to 
learn  they  had  lost  their  all.  Even  the  poor 
guardian  funds  were  gone. 

England  in  Ireland,  as  everywhere  else  that 
her  misrule  has  gone,  has  depended  upon  gold  to 
[180] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

sustain  her  power.  Wherever  she  can  find  a 
Benedict  Arnold,  a  Castlereagh,  a  James  Carey, 
she  has  poured  out  her  gold  like  water  in  order 
to  get  men  to  betray  the  cause  of  their  country 
and  to  introduce  dissension  and  distrust  into  the 
ranks  of  those  who  oppose  her.  Her  motto  always 
has  been — like  that  of  Rome — Divide  et  impera, 
and  signs  multiply  both  in  Ireland  and  America 
that  she  is  at  her  old  game  among  the  needy,  the 
unscrupulous  and  the  envious  ones  of  the  race,  to 
make  them  misrepresent  real  conditions  and 
induce  their  too  trustful  countrymen  to  forgive 
the  past  and  come  to  her  assistance  in  this  hour 
of  dreadful  danger.  But  she  has  played  the  game 
once  too  often,  and  even  the  timid  and  weak  men 
who  were  tacitly  or  openly  on  her  side  because 
of  her  supposed  invincibility  are  now  awakening 
to  a  full  realization  of  her  real  weakness,  and  con- 
tempt and  dislike  are  now  rapidly  replacing  the 
dread  which  they  had  for  her  at  the  outbreak 
of  this  war.  The  extraordinary  achievements  of 
the  German  Navy — the  Hogue,  Cressy,  Aboukir 
incidents,  the  sinking  of  the  Audacious  on  the 
Irish  coast  and  of  the  Formidable  in  the  English 
Channel — have  destroyed  the  prestige  of  the  Eng- 
lish Navy  and  made  Irishmen  realize  that  the  in- 
[181] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

vasion  both  of  England  and  Ireland  are  reason- 
able probabilities,  and  in  view  of  such  a  contin- 
gency the  appeals  of  Redmond  and  his  allies  to 
young  Irishmen  to  go  with  the  English  army  or 
navy  are  falling  on  deaf  ears.* 

*MR.  BOURASSA  REFUSED  A  HEARING — MEETING  AT  OTTAWA 
BROKEN  UP  (Toronto,  December  17). — A  meeting  at  Ottawa, 
which  was  to  have  been  addressed  by  Mr.  Henri  Bourassa.  the 
leader  of  the  Nationalist  movement  in  Quebec,  was  broken  up 
under  dramatic  conditions.  There  was  constant  interruption 
from  two  or  three  hundred  members  of  the  Sons  of  England 
Lodges  and  other  elements  of  the  audience.  They  demanded 
that  he  should  wave  the  Union  Jack,  but  Mr.  Bourassa,  who 
preserved  his  good  temper  throughout,  said :  "I  am  a  British 
subject,  but  I  will  not  wave  the  British  flag  under  compulsion." 

As  he  remained  obdurate  the  crowd  invaded  the  platform  and 
the  curtain  was  rung  down.  For  several  hours  hundreds  re- 
mained in  the  theatre  singing  patriotic  songs  and  cheering. 

Later  Mr.  Bourassa  read  his  speech  to  a  small  company  at  the 
Chateau  Laurier.  His  chief  argument  was  that  the  first  duty  of 
Canada  was  to  itself,  and  the  principle  of  autonomy  and  the 
rights  of  minorities  were  not  contrary  to  the  idea  of  the  British 
connection. — From  our  own  correspondent. 


[182] 


DANIEL  O'CONNELL 
"THE  GREAT  LIBERATOR" 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

YOUNG  IRELAND  OF  1848 

THE  men  of  '48 !  The  brief  and  ill-starred  revo- 
lution in  Ireland  in  the  year  1848  developed  a 
galaxy  of  young  men  and  women  of  genius, 
equalled,  perhaps,  though  not  surpassed,  by  the 
heroic  and  brilliant  Girondists.  The  daring 
deeds  of  revolution  is  always  the  work  of  youth. 
That  the  Ireland  of  to-day  seems  to  lack  the 
spirit  of  active  patriotism  may  be  ascribed  to  the 
preponderance  of  the  aged  among  her  declining 
population.  The  proportion  of  old  people,  apply- 
ing for  age  pensions,  startled  the  pension  officials, 
and  an  investigation  showed  that  Ireland  had 
more  old  people  and  fewer  young  men,  in  pro- 
portion, than  any  country  in  the  world.  Her 
present  political  leaders  are  nearly  all  old  men. 
Daniel  O'Connell  is  believed  to  have  been  the 
most  powerful  and  effective  orator  of  the  last 
century.  The  late  Mr.  Gladstone  and  other  au- 
thorities agree  that  no  man  of  modern  times  af- 
fected so  many  persons  through  the  art  of  pub- 
lic speaking.  The  writer  has  stood  on  the  an- 
[183] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

cient  Hill  of  Tara,  where  O'Connell  once  spoke 
to  200,000  people,  the  largest  audience  on  record, 
and  Lord  Byron  said  his  words  could  be  heard 
distinctly  on  the  farthermost  edge  of  the  crowd. 
Wendell  Phillips,  America's  famous  platform 
orator,  visited  the  House  of  Commons  to  study 
the  method  of  O'Connell's  oratory.  Afterward 
Mr.  Phillips  said,  "this  is  the  man,  there  are  the 
lips,  the  most  wonderful  to  speak  the  English 
tongue."  To  this  day  you  see  Irish  pilgrims  from 
all  parts  of  the  world  visiting  the  mausoleum  in 
Glasnevin  to  place  their  hands  on  his  coffin.  He 
won  religious  liberty  for  his  country.  And  he 
rested.  History  is  merely  a  record  of  change, 
and  no  leader  of  the  people  can  afford  to  stand 
still.  Young  Ireland  demanded  political,  as  well 
as  religious,  freedom.  The  veteran  was  amazed 
that  any  one  in  Ireland  should  question  his  leader- 
ship. His  pride  and  prestige  seemed  hurt.  He 
denounced  the  young  men  and  women  of  the 
new  party  as  firebrands  and  ungrateful  fanatics. 
He  constantly  kept  telling  them  that  his  conserva- 
tive policies  would  bear  fruit;  they  must  wait. 
But  he  failed  to  see  that  the  new  generation  was 
slipping  away  from  him,  determined  to  challenge 
his  supremacy.  The  brave  old  lion  was  tired  and 
[184] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

needed  a  rest,  and  he  should  have  given  up  the 
leadership.  The  fate  of  revolutionists  who  rest 
is  certain.  Danton,  tired  and  weary,  went  to  the 
country,  while  Robespierre  took  advantage  of 
his  absence  from  the  conflict  and  sent  him  to  the 
scaffold.  Revolutions  wait  not  on  the  old  or  the 
weary. 

And  then  crashing  down  on  unfortunate  Ire- 
land like  a  wild  whirlwind  of  horror  and  destruc- 
tion in  the  seasons  of  1846-47,  came  the  frightful 
famine.  The  neglect  of  Ireland,  the  woes  of  cen- 
turies, the  maladministration  of  her  conquerors, 
the  failure  of  the  government  to  cope  with  the 
wretched  conditions,  bureaucratic  delays,  brought 
on  in  the  fog  and  blackness  of  the  night  the 
most  terrible  fate  that  can  befall  a  people — star- 
vation. O'Connell  broke  under  the  frightful 
strain.  He  had  lived  too  long,  because  he  had 
lived  to  see  the  destruction  of  his  country.  He 
went  to  Italy  and  died  at  Genoa  on  the  15th  of 
May,  1847. 

One  day  in  1842  three  young  men  were  walk- 
ing in  Phoenix  Park,  Dublin.  They  were 
Charles  Gavan  Duffy,  Thomas  Davis  and  John 
Blake  Dillon.  They  decided  on  an  independent 
policy,  and  they  founded  a  newspaper,  The  Na- 
[185] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

tion.  This  journal  finally  became  the  guide  and 
counsellor  of  the  young  men  of  Ireland.  From 
this  band  of  young  men  and  women,  working  on 
that  paper,  burst  forth  a  new  Irish  poetry  and 
literature,  which  has  been  translated  into  many 
languages  and  is  still  preserved  in  every  library 
and  will  live  for  centuries.  They  were  the  first 
to  break  down  the  antagonisms  between  Protes- 
tants and  Catholics.  Thomas  Davis  was  a  Prot- 
estant in  religion,  and  he  wrote : 

What  matter  that  at  different  shrines 

We  pray  unto  one  God? 
What  matter  that  at  different  times 

Our  fathers  won  this  sod? 

In  fortune  and  in  name  we're  bound 

By  stronger  links  than  steel ; 
And  neither  can  be  safe  or  sound 

But  in  the  other's  weal. 

And  oh,  it  were  a  gallant  deed 

To  show  before  mankind 
How  every  race  and  every  creed 

Might  be  by  love  combined — 

They  struggled  to  improve  the  tone  of  Irish 
life.  They  denounced  the  taking  of  office  by 
patriots,  on  the  ground  that  once  a  man  gets  on 
a  British  Government  payroll  he  loses  interest  in 
the  cause  of  Ireland. 

[186] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Glorious  are  the  names  of  the  young  Ireland- 
ers.  They  were  sentenced  to  convict  colonies, 
and  yet  they  lived  to  become  leaders  of  public 
opinion  throughout  the  world.  Duffy  rose  to  be 
prime  minister  of  Australia;  McGee  became  a 
cabinet  minister  of  railways  in  Canada ;  Meagher, 
the  great  orator,  commanded  the  American  Irish 
Brigade  of  the  Civil  War,  and  died  as  governor 
of  Montana.  Richard  O'Gorman  died  the  fore- 
most member  of  the  New  York  Bar.  Kevin 
O'Doherty  was  leader  of  the  Queensland  legisla- 
ture. Richard  Dalton  Williams,  the  poet,  died  a 
distinguished  physician  at  New  Orleans.  The 
small  band  of  revolutionists  produced  three 
great  literary  women — Eva  Mary  Kelly,  Lady 
Wilde  and  Ellen  Downing.  The  literary  works  of 
John  K.  Ingram,  James  Clarence  Mangin,  Sam- 
uel Ferguson,  Denis  Florence  MacCarthy  make 
priceless  the  literature  of  the  Young  Ireland 
movement.  William  Smith  O'Brien,  a  Protes- 
tant, was  the  active  leader.  In  1843  he  announced, 
after  serving  fourteen  years  in  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, that  England  was  the  enemy  of  his  country 
and  there  was  no  hope  for  Ireland  in  the  union  as 
it  existed  between  Ireland  and  Great  Britain. 

The  first  man,  since  Robert  Emmet,  to  advo- 
[187] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

cate  physical  resistance  in  Ireland,  was  one  of 
the  '48  men,  John  Mitchel,  the  grandfather  of 
Mayor  Mitchel  of  New  York.  He  was  the  son 
of  an  Unitarian  minister  in  an  Ulster  county. 
The  government  passed  through  Parliament  a 
law  designed  to  make  the  speeches  of  Mitchel  and 
others  treasonable.  John  Mitchel  was  arrested 
on  the  22d  day  of  May,  1848,  and  found  guilty 
in  two  days.  He  was  sentenced  to  fourteen  years' 
transportation  to  the  convict  colonies  across  the 
seas  while  twelve  thousand  government  troops 
surrounded  the  court  house  to  prevent  a  contem- 
plated rescue.  When  asked  by  the  Court  if  he 
had  anything  to  say,  he  replied:  "My  lords,  I 
knew  I  was  setting  my  life  on  that  cast.  The 
course  which  I  have  opened  is  only  commenced. 
The  Roman  who  saw  his  hand  burning  to  ashes 
before  the  tyrant  promised  that  three  hundred 
should  follow  out  his  enterprise.  Can  I  not  prom- 
ise for  one — for  two — for  three — ay,  for  hun- 
dreds ?"  His  friends  in  the  courtroom  cried  out, 
"Promise  for  me,  Mitchel!  Promise  for  me!" 
Arms  were  drawn,  the  troops  drove  back  the 
crowd.  The  prisoner  was  carried  to  the  cells 
below.  Early  in  the  morning,  heavily  manacled, 
chains  from  his  wrists  to  his  ankles,  he  was  car- 
[188] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

ried  out  to  sea.  The  police  destroyed  the  Nation 
office  and  arrested  Duffy,  then  followed  the  ar- 
rest and  conviction  of  the  remaining  leaders. 
O'Brien,  Meagher,  MacManus  and  O'Donohue 
were  sentenced  to  be  Kanged,  beheaded,  disem- 
bowelled and  quartered.  The  ferocity  of  the 
sentences  affected  callous  England,  and  they  were 
commuted  to  life-long  imprisonment  in  the  con- 
vict quarters  of  Australia,  where  the  prisoners 
were  transported  July  29,  1849. 

The  speeches  from  the  dock  of  these  young 
Nationalists,  sentenced  to  die,  occupy  an  impor- 
tant place  in  the  world's  tragic  literature.  The 
circumstances  under  which  they  spoke  never 
caused  them  to  falter.  They  were  about  to  die, 
but  they  were  to  die  for  Ireland.  Not  one  failed 
or  faltered,  and  their  young  voices  ringing  out 
in  the  courtroom  have  been  heard  all  over  the 
world.  It  is  that  spirit  which  tears  the  heart- 
strings of  the  sons  of  Irish  emigrants  the  world 
over  at  the  call  of  Redmond  for  Irish  lives  to 
save  England.  All  the  government  jobs  of 
the  British  Empire  would  not  have  moved  the 
Young  Irelanders  of  1848  to  recruit  for  Eng- 
land. 

"The  liberty  of  the  world,"  said  Daniel  O'Con- 
[189] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

nell,  facing  the  Young  Ireland  leaders,  "is  not 
worth  the  shedding  of  one  drop  of  blood."  Alas 
for  the  memory  of  O'Connell!  If  that  doctrine 
were  true,  we  citizens  of  America  would  have 
no  imperishable  memories  other  than  as  a  colony 
of  Great  Britain.  There  would  be  no  Washing- 
ton's Birthday  holiday,  no  Thomas  Jefferson, 
Andrew  Jackson,  no  immortal  friend  of  freedom, 
of  the  poor  and  lowly,  Abraham  Lincoln.  The 
glory  of  America,  as  of  Ireland,  rests  with  her 
patriots,  heroes  and  republicans  who  dared  face 
and  contest,  in  the  name  of  liberty,  hostile  majori- 
ties at  home  and  abroad.  The  line  between  suc- 
cessful revolution  and  failure  is  extremely  nar- 
row. Not  one  out  of  a  hundred  succeeds.  Suc- 
cess is  followed  by  power,  temporary  gratitude, 
glory,  honors,  monuments ;  failure  is  followed  by 
suffering,  misery,  ofttimes  obloquy  and  death. 
The  martyrdom  of  failure  and  revolution  are 
twin  brothers. 

The  sacrifices  of  the  Young  Irelanders  made 
possible  Parneirs  movement,  the  various  Land 
Acts  an'd  the  right  of  the  natives  of  Ireland 
to  own  the  soil  of  their  country.  The  writer 
believes  that  the  writings  of  John  Mitchel  are 
the  greatest  force  for  the  perpetuation  of  the 
[190] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

spirit  of  Irish  freedom.  From  his  cell  in  New- 
gate Prison  he  wrote  to  a  friend:  "For  me,  I 
abide  my  fate  joyfully;  for  I  know  that,  whatever 
betide  me,  my  work  is  nearly  done.  Yes;  moral 
force  and  'patience  and  perseverance'  are  scat- 
tered to  the  wild  winds  of  heaven.  The  music 
my  countrymen  now  love  best  to  hear  is  the  rat- 
tle of  arms  and  the  ring  of  the  rifle.  As  I  sit 
here  and  write  in  my  lonely  cell,  I  hear,  just 
dying  away,  the  measured  tramp  of  ten  thousand 
marching  men — my  gallant  confederates,  un- 
armed and  silent,  but  with  hearts  like  bended 
bow,  waiting  till  the  time  comes.  They  have 
marched  past  my  prison  windows  to  let  me  know 
there  are  ten  thousand  fighting  men  in  Dublin — 
'felons'  in  heart  and  soul.  I  thank  God  for  it. 
The  game  is  afoot  at  last.  The  liberty  of  Ire- 
land may  come  sooner  or  later,  by  peaceful  ne- 
gotiation or  bloody  conflict,  but  it  is  sure;  and 
wherever  between  the  poles  I  may  chance  to  be, 
I  will  hear  the  crash  of  the  downfall  of  the 
thrice-accursed  British  Empire." 

Mitchel    remained,   undaunted   in   spirit,    for 

seven  years  in  the  convict  colony  of  Van  Diemens 

Land.    Conspirators  in  the  United  States  effected 

his  escape.    He  arrived  safely  in  San  Francisco, 

[191] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

California,  October  12,  1853.  He  founded  the 
Daily  Citizen  of  New  York,  and  moved  to  the 
South,  where  he  was  editor  of  the  Richmond  Ex- 
aminer, and,  strange  to  say,  espoused  the  cause 
of  the  Southern  Confederacy,  two  of  his  sons 
dying  on  the  battlefields  of  the  South.  Mitchel 
was  a  private  in  the  Southern  army,  was  taken 
prisoner  by  the  Federals,  released  through  Irish 
friends,  returned  to  New  York  in  1867,  founded 
the  Irish  Citizen,  was  elected  member  of  Parlia- 
ment from  Tipperary  County,  while  in  New 
York,  returned  to  Ireland,  and  died  shortly 
after. 

John  Martin  was  the  friend  of  John  Mitchel. 
He  took  up  the  cause  of  Mitchel  and  founded  the 
United  Irishman.  The  government  destroyed 
his  paper,  and  he  established  another,  the  Irish 
Felon.  He  was  incarcerated  in  the  dungeons  of 
Newgate.  From  the  depths  of  his  underground 
cell,  filled  with  slime  and  water,  he  wrote  these 
words  to  the  patriots  of  1848: 

"Let  them  menace  you  with  the  hulks  or  the 
gibbet  for  daring  to  speak  or  write  of  your  love 
of  Ireland.  Let  them  threaten  to  mow  you  down 
with  grape-shot,  as  they  massacred  your  kins- 
men with  famine  and  plague.  Spurn  their  brutal 
[192] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

acts  of  Parliament,  trample  upon  their  lying 
proclamations — fear  them  not !" 

John  Martin  was  found  guilty  of  treason,  and 
sentenced  to  Van  Diemens  Land,  the  convict 
colony.  He  said  in  court: 

"My  object  is  to  assist  in  establishing  the  na- 
tional independence  of  Ireland  for  the  benefit  of 
all  the  people  of  Ireland.  National  independ- 
ence will  prevent  much  of  the  pauperism,  starva- 
tion and  misery  which  prevails  in  Ireland." 

On  one  of  those  stormy  days  of  1848,  William 
Smith  O'Brien  said:  "Irish  freedom  must  be 
won  by  Irish  courage.  Ireland's  problems  can 
only  be  solved  by  a  republic."  O'Brien  headed 
the  revolution.  A  large  reward  was  offered  for 
his  apprehension.  His  military  following  was 
finally  reduced  to  hundreds.  His  little  army  de- 
stroyed, O'Brien  fought  with  a  handful  in  the 
mountains.  At  last  he  was  captured  and  taken 
to  Thurles.  His  trial  lasted  two  short  days,  and 
he  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged,  beheaded  and 
quartered.  He  was  reprieved,  sent  to  Maria's 
Island  for  life,  where  he  was  treated  with  great 
severity. 

Through  the  aid  of  friends  in  Tasmania  he 
nearly  escaped.  His  health  failing,  he  was  trans- 
[193] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

ported  to  Port  Arthur.  His  friends  secured  a 
pardon  in  1854,  and  he  returned  to  Ireland  after 
an  exile  of  eight  years.  He  died  in  1864,  broken 
in  health  and  spirits. 

Of  the  Young  Ireland  leaders  the  name  dear- 
est to  Americans  is  Thomas  Francis  Meagher. 
He  won  fame  as  a  writer  and  orator  at  the  early 
age  of  twenty-three.  He  was  opposed  to  what 
has  been  termed  O'Connell's  doctrine  of  passive 
resistance.  In  speaking  against  this  theory,  he 
said:  "I  am  not  one  of  those  tame  moralists 
who  say  that  liberty  is  not  worth  one  drop  of 
blood.  Against  this  maxim  the  noblest  virtue  that 
has  saved  and  sanctified  humanity  appears  in 
judgment.  From  the  blue  waters  of  the  Bay  of 
Salamis;  from  the  valley  over  which  the  sun 
stood  still  and  lit  the  Israelites  to  victory;  from 
the  cathedral  in  which  the  sword  of  Poland  has 
been  sheathed  in  the  shroud  of  Kosciusko;  from 
the  convent  of  St.  Isadore,  where  the  fiery  hand 
that  rent  the  ensign  of  St.  George  upon  the  Plains 
of  Ulster  has  mouldered  into  dust ;  from  the  sands 
of  the  desert,  where  the  wild  genius  of  the  Al- 
gerine  so  long  has  scared  the  eagle  of  the  Pyre- 
nees; from  the  ducal  palace  of  this  kingdom, 
where  the  memory  of  the  gallant  and  seditious 
[i94] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Geraldine  enhances,  more  than  royal  favor,  the 
splendor  of  his  race;  from  the  solitary  grave 
within  this  mute  city  which  a  dying  bequest  has 
left  without  an  epitaph,  oh!  from  every  spot 
where  heroism  has  had  a  sacrifice  or  liberty  a 
triumph,  a  voice  breaks  in  on  the  cringing 
crowd,  that  cherishes  this  wretched  maxim,  cry- 
ing out,  'Away  with  it !  away  with  it !'  " 

Meagher  was  arrested  in  1848.  Out  of  a  jury 
of  300  drawn  in  Clonmel  only  18  Catholic  names 
appeared  in  the  panel.  He  was  found  guilty  and 
transported  to  the  Australian  convict  colony.  His 
speech  from  the  dock  is  famous  in  history. 
Among  other  things,  he  said,  "Judged  by  the  law 
of  England,  I  know  this  crime  entails  on  me  the 
penalty  of  death;  but  the  history  of  Ireland  ex- 
plains that  crime  and  justifies  it." 

Meagher  escaped  to  America  in  1852.  He 
founded  the  Irish  News  in  New  York,  and  be- 
came one  of  America's  celebrated  orators.  When 
the  Civil  War  broke  out  in  1861  he  raised  a 
zouave  company,  joined  the  69th  New  York 
Regiment,  a  famous  fighting  regiment  under 
Colonel  Michael  Corcoran,  and  then  organized 
one  of  the  most  celebrated  divisions  in  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  Meagher's  Irish  Brigade,  com- 
[i95] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

posed  of  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio  and  Illinois  regiments  of  men  born 
in  Ireland.  His  brigade  was  cut  to  pieces  in  the 
sanguinary  battle  of  Gettysburg.  Meagher  es- 
caped with  his  own  life,  and,  after  the  war,  was 
appointed  governor  of  Montana,  where  he  was 
drowned  by  accident  in  1867. 

When  Mitchel  fell  and  the  Nation  and  the 
United  Irishman  newspapers  were  destroyed, 
Keven  Izod  O'Doherty  established  the  Irish 
Tribune.  The  government  seized  the  paper  and 
placed  O'Doherty  in  the  Newgate  dungeon.  He 
was  found  guilty  on  the  third  trial  and  trans- 
ported to  the  convict  station  in  Australia.  He 
managed  to  get  away  and  reached  France.  He 
had  been  engaged  to  the  beautiful  and  gifted  Eva 
Kelly  of  the  Nation  staff,  whom  he  married  in 
1856,  and  he  became  a  famous  surgeon  in 
Australia. 

On  the  10th  day  of  November,  1861,  the  most 
wonderful  funeral  but  one,  the  exception  being 
the  funeral  of  Charles  Stuart  Parnell,  was  seen 
in  Dublin.  The  bones  of  Terence  Bellew  Mac- 
Manus,  who  escaped  from  the  convict  camp  of 
Australia,  were  brought  from  California.  Six 
thousand  miles  away  they  brought  the  remains  of 
[196] 


JOHN  MITCHEL 

"The  game  is  afoot  at  last.     The  liberty   of   Ireland  will 
come  later  with  the  downfall  of  the  British  Empire." 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

one  of  the  expatriated  of  '48.  From  all  four 
corners  of  the  world  the  exiles  gathered  in  Dub- 
lin, the  world's  greatest  funeral — from  the 
United  States,  Canada,  Australia,  South  Amer- 
ica, India,  West  Indies,  the  Continent  the  exiles 
delegated  men  and  women  to  follow  the  coffin 
to  Glasnevin.  For  much  of  the  history  of  Ire- 
land is  written,  not  in  books,  but  on  the  tombs 
of  the  dead. 


[197] 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  UPRISING  OF    1865 

THE  ill-starred  revolutionary  movement  of  1865, 
known  as  the  Fenian  movement,  failed  sadly,  yet 
history  records  that  the  uprising  led  to  the  birth 
of  the  Home  Rule  Party,  the  defeat  of  the  land- 
lords in  their  long  political  control  of  Ireland, 
and  to  the  scaring  of  England  into  granting  some 
local  reforms.  The  records  of  history  will  be 
searched  in  vain  to  prove  where  England  ever 
made  any  concessions  to  Ireland  except  through 
fear  of  revolution  or  because  the  Irish  held  the 
balance  of  power  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

The  Fenian  movement  was  organized  in  New 
York,  and  America  furnished  the  supplies.  It 
was  a  purely  revolutionary  society  directed  at  the 
British  government  of  Ireland.  The  foremost 
leaders  were  James  Stephens,  Charles  J.  Kick- 
ham,  John  O'Leary  and  Thomas  Clarke  Luby, 
all  but  O'Leary  being  Protestants.  It  is  a  curious 
fact  in  the  history  of  Ireland  that  a  majority 
of  her  foremost  rebels  have  been  Protestants,  as 
well  as  being  poets  and  writers.  The  leaders  of 
[198] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

the  Fenians  in  New  York  were  John  O'Mahony, 
Michael  Doherty  and  Colonel  Michael  Corcoran 
of  the  famous  fighting  69th  Regiment  of  New 
York.  They  had  the  support  of  three  New  York 
newspapers. 

In  April,  1865,  the  Civil  War  in  the  United 
States  was  closed  by  the  surrender  of  the  South 
at  Appomattox  and  the  Irish  regiments  enrolled 
in  the  Fenian  organization  by  the  thousands. 
Large  sums  of  money  were  secured  for  the  arm- 
ing of  the  Fenian  brotherhoods  in  Ireland.  The 
British  Government  struck  quickly  before  the 
guns  from  America  could  be  delivered.  The 
leaders  were  arrested  and  charged  with  high 
treason.  Stephens  effected  a  prison  conspiracy 
and  escaped,  Luby,  O'Leary  and  Kickham  were 
sent  to  prison  for  twenty  years  at  hard  labor, 
others  were  sent  to  prison  for  life,  many  were 
flogged  on  the  backs  with  whips  steeped  in  vine- 
gar. The  uprisings  in  seven  counties  were  put 
down. 

The  inevitable  Irish  traitor  appeared  in  the  per- 
son of  Corydon,  the  informer.  Off  Sandy  Hook, 
New  York,  a  ship  lay.  On  board  were  five  thou- 
sand stand  of  arms,  three  pieces  of  field  artillery 
and  ammunition.  In  charge  were  officers  of  the 
[199] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Irish  Brigade  fresh  from  the  Union  army.  Most 
of  the  American  people  were  secretly  or  openly 
in  sympathy  with  the  revolutionists,  because  of 
the  opposition  of  England  to  the  American 
Union  in  the  Civil  War  and  on  account  of  the 
admiration  in  the  United  States  for  the  valor  and 
patriotic  devotion  of  the  Irish  soldiers  in  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion.  Friendly  American  sym- 
pathizers had  contributed  large  sums  of  money 
to  the  Fenian  cause.  The  ship  reached  Sligo 
Bay,  but  the  revolution  was  at  an  end  in  Ireland. 
The  trouble  had  spread  to  the  English  cities, 
where  the  Irish  were  numerous.  In  1867  two 
conspirators,  Kelly  and  Deasy,  were  arrested  in 
Manchester,  England.  The  Fenians  resolved  on 
rescue.  The  two  were  handcuffed  and  locked  in 
the  prison  van  guarded  by  twelve  policemen.  A 
party  of  thirty  men  attacked  the  van.  They  de- 
manded of  Sergeant  Brett,  who  was  inside,  to 
deliver  up  the  keys.  He  refused  and  a  revolver 
shot  was  fired  at  the  keyhold  to  break  the  lock. 
By  mistake  Sergeant  Brett  was  hit  by  the  bullet 
and  died.  The  prisoners  were  rescued  and  es- 
caped. A  few  days  later  William  Philip  Allen, 
Michael  Larkin,  Thomas  Maguire,  Michael 
O'Brien  and  Edward  Condon  were  tried  for  the 

[200] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

murder   of   the  policeman.     They   were   found 
guilty  of  wilful  murder,  although  the  killing  was 
an  accident. 
Condon  said: 

I  only  trust  that  those  who  are  to  be  tried  after  us 
will  have  a  fair  trial,  and  that  our  blood  will  satisfy 
the  craving  which  I  understand  exists.  You  will  soon 
send  us  before  God,  and  I  am  perfectly  prepared  to 
go.  I  have  nothing  to  regret,  or  retract  or  take  back. 
I  can  only  say  GOD  SAVE  IRELAND. 

At  daybreak  on  the  morning  of  the  23d  day 
of  November,  1867,  Allen,  Larkin  and  O'Brien 
were  led  forth  to  die.  Long  lines  of  troops  sur- 
rounded the  jail.  A  savage  crowd  of  Manchester 
people  watched  the  execution.  All  three  died 
bravely.  Their  bodies  were  refused  their  rela- 
tives, buried  in  quicklime  and  in  unconsecrated 
ground.  In  Dublin  60,000  men  marched  behind 
three  empty  hearses  as  an  evidence  of  protest. 

"GOD  SAVE  IRELAND" 
High  upon  the  gallows  tree 
Swung  the  noble-hearted  three, 
By  the  vengeful  tyrant  stricken  in  their  bloom ; 
But  they  met  him  face  to  face, 
With  the  courage  of  their  race, 
And  they  went  with  souls  undaunted  to  their  doom. 
[201] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

"God  save  Ireland!"  said  the  heroes; 

"God  save  Ireland !"  said  they  all. 

"Whether  on  the  scaffold  high, 

Or  the  battlefield  we  die, 

O,  what  matter,  when  for  Erin  dear  we  fall !" 

Girt  around  with  cruel  foes, 

Still  their  spirits  proudly  rose, 

For  they  thought  of  hearts  that  loved  them,  far  and 

near; 

Of  the  millions  true  and  brave 
O'er  the  ocean's  swelling  wave, 
And  the  friends  in  holy  Ireland  ever  dear. 
"God  save  Ireland!"  said  they  proudly; 
"God  save  Ireland !"  said  they  all. 
"Whether  on  the  scaffold  high, 
Or  the  battlefield  we  die, 
O,  what  matter,  when  for  Erin  dear  we  fall !" 

Climbed  they  up  the  rugged  stair, 
Rung  their  voices  out  in  prayer, 
Then  with  England's  fatal  cord  around  them  cast, 
Close  beneath  the  gallows  tree, 
Kissed  like  brothers  lovingly, 
True  to  home,  and  faith,  and  freedom,  to  the  last. 
"God  save  Ireland!"  prayed  they  loudly; 
"God  save  Ireland !"  said  they  all. 
"Whether  on  the  scaffold  high, 
Or  the  battlefield  we  die, 
O,  what  matter,  when  for  Erin  dear  we  fall !" 
[202] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Never  till  the  latest  day 

Shall  the  memory  pass  away 

Of  the  gallant  lives  thus  given  for  our  land; 

But  on  the  cause  must  go, 

Amidst  joy,  or  weal,  or  woe, 

Till  we've  made  our  isle  a  nation  free  and  grand. 

"God  save  Ireland!"  say  we  proudly; 

"God  save  Ireland !"  say  we  all. 

"Whether  on  the  scaffold  high, 

Or  the  battlefield  we  die, 

O,  what  matter,  when  for  Erin  dear  we  fall !" 

Allen,  Larkin  and  O'Brien  were  humble  men, 
but  their  terrible  fate  and  the  belief  in  their  in- 
nocence caused  Parnell  to  take  up  the  struggle 
for  Ireland.  Our  true  men  and  women  never 
forget  the  cause  of  Irish  liberty  which  ever  re- 
verberates in  their  ears  from  the  clanging  of  the 
chains  in  the  prison  dungeon  to  the  dying  cry  of 
"God  save  Ireland"  on  the  scaffold  at  Man- 
chester. 

The  world  can  thank  or  curse,  as  the  case  may 
be,  the  Fenian  Revolutionary  Brotherhood  for 
the  submarine  which  is  doing  such  deadly  execu- 
tion, especially  on  the  part  of  Germany  in  the 
North  Seas.  The  great  inventor,  John  P.  Hol- 
land, improved  and  developed  the  submarine,  and 
his  improvements  first  made  it  practical.  Holland 
[203] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

was  a  young  inventive  Irish  genius,  an  ardent 
Irish  revolutionist  of  the  Fenian  brotherhood  or 
circle  led  by  the  celebrated  Catalpa  Jim  Reynolds, 
who  organized  a  band  of  patriots,  who  success- 
fully effected  the  rescue  of  the  Fenian  political 
prisoners  from  the  Australian  convict  colonies 
about  forty  years  ago.  As  a  conspirator,  Holland 
thought  out  the  idea  of  a  submarine  boat  to  be 
used  under  water  to  destroy  the  English  fleet. 
There  was  much  feeling  throughout  the  United 
States  against  England  after  the  Civil  War,  and 
many  citizens  believed  that  war  between  the  two 
countries  was  imminent.  The  plan  of  Holland 
was  to  use  the  submarines  against  England  near 
American  and  Irish  harbors.  The  Fenian 
Brotherhood  supplied  Holland  with  some  $50,000, 
and  he  constructed  the  first  known  successful  sub- 
marine, christened  it  the  Fenian  Ram,  and  dedi- 
cated the  underwater  craft  to  the  Irish  Republic. 
This  led  Holland  to  develop  submarines,  and  the 
world  acknowledges  that  to  the  brain  of  Holland 
chiefly  is  due  the  creation  of  the  modern  sub- 
marine. 


[204] 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  SITUATION   IN   IRELAND 

THE  first  contested  election  for  a  member  of 
Parliament  in  Ireland,  since  the  Home  Rule  Bill 
was  signed  by  the  king,  was  held  in  Kings 
County  recently.  This  county  is  strongly  Na- 
tionalist and  has  been  held  by  the  Irish  Party, 
under  the  leadership  of  Parnell  and  Redmond, 
almost  unanimously,  for  thirty  years.  The  Red- 
mondite  convention,  the  political  machine  in  Ire- 
land, nominated  P.  F.  Adams  for  the  seat  of 
North  Kings.  The  Nationalists,  who  are  opposed 
to  Redmond,  decided  to  run  an  independent  can- 
didate against  Mr.  Adams.  The  regular  party 
was  shocked  that  any  such  impudent  challenge  to 
Redmond's  leadership  should  be  made  at  this 
juncture  and  all  the  powerful  machinery  of  the 
party,  supported  by  the  government,  was  brought 
to  North  Kings  to  crush  the  insurgents.  Outside 
of  the  district  little  attention  was  paid  to  the 
contest,  as  the  Parliamentary  Party  scoffed,  at 
first,  at  the  candidacy  of  the  Anti-Redmond 
Nationalist.  The  whips  of  the  party  said  that 
[205] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Mr.  E.  J.  Graham,  the  independent,  would  secure 
no  more  than  a  handful  of  votes.  A  dozen  of 
Redmond's  members  of  Parliament  stumped  the 
district  appealing  for  support  of  the  party  can- 
didate. Loyalty  to  the  country,  loyalty  to  Red- 
mond, demanded  the  triumphant  election  of  Mr. 
Adams.  "All  England  is  watching  the  result  in 
Tullamore,"  said  John  Muldoon,  member  of 
Parliament. 

Speaking  at  Tuam  on  the  Sunday  before  the 
election,  John  Redmond  said  that  Graham  had 
flouted  his  leadership  and  repudiated  the  Parlia- 
mentary Party  and  the  convention.  Mr.  Red- 
mond closed  his  speech  with  this  final  appeal : 

I  call  upon  the  electors  of  Kings  County  to  crush, 
through  the  ballot  box,  this  act  of  insubordination. 

The  result  of  the  first  contest  since  the  Home 
Rule  Bill  was  passed  came  as  a  surprise  and 
shock  to  Mr.  Redmond  and  to  the  government. 
The  vote  follows: 

Graham  (Anti-Redmond)    1,667 

Adams  (Redmond)    1,588 

As  soon  as  the  government  received  word  of 
the  result  at  North  Kings,  the  military  and  police 
authorities  stopped  the  publication  of  Ireland,  a 
[206] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Dublin  daily  paper  which  was  hostile  to  the  Irish 
Party. 

Ireland  is  under  martial  law  and  all  the  forces 
of  the  government  are  employed  to  crush,  as  an 
act  of  treason,  any  criticism  of  the  authorities 
which  now  include  Mr.  Redmond.  Free  speech 
and  a  free  press  are  denied.  The  following  in- 
timation was  received  by  the  writer,  who  is  a 
subscriber  to  a  paper  called  Eire  or  Ireland,  in 
Dublin,  lately  suppressed.  It  is  simply  copied 
from  a  Dublin  paper  and  press  censored: 

"A  circular  issued  on  Saturday  "to  the  readers 
of  Eire  .  .  .  Ireland,"  and  signed  by  Messrs. 
Arthur  Griffith  and  Sean  T.  O'Ceallaigh,  refers 
to  the  suppression  of  the  Irish  Worker  and  other 
papers.  It  states  that,  although  the  printer  of 
the  Worker  endeavored  to  comply  with  the  de- 
mands of  the  British  military  authorities,  he  "had 
his  private  property  seized  and  his  means  of  live- 
lihood taken  away."  The  circular  concludes: 
"In  the  circumstances,  the  printer  of  Ireland  has 
felt  himself  unable  to  continue  printing  that  jour- 
nal. The  editor  of  Eire  wishes  to  add  that  the 
printer  of  Ireland  has  acted  throughout  with 
courage,  and  if  he  could  not  further  continue  to 
[207] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

print  the  journal,  in  view  of  the  fate  of  a  man 
whose  printing  office  has  been  invaded  by  armed 
force  and  whose  property  and  means  of  liveli- 
hood have  been  summarily  confiscated,  despite 
the  fact  that  he  had,  to  the  best  of  his  judgment, 
complied  with  British  military  orders,  no  reflec- 
tion rests  upon  Mr.  Mahon"  (the  printer  of  Ire- 
land). 

In  a  word,  Ireland  is  treated  by  England  and 
her  allies  as  a  conquered  country;  all  real  news 
is  suppressed;  newspapers  are  seized,  and  any 
man  daring  to  express  an  opinion  in  opposition  to 
the  policy  or  action  of  the  authorities  is  in  hourly 
danger  of  arrest.  But  history  shows  that  Ireland 
and  her  national  spirit  thrive  on  persecution.  Al- 
ready this  is  evident  again.  The  Volunteer  move- 
ment, which  Redmond  tried  first  to  suppress  and 
then  to  split,  has  broken  away  from  him,  and 
under  the  leadership  of  Professor  MacNeill  has 
drawn  into  its  ranks  the  best  of  the  young  man- 
hood of  Ireland.  The  political  machine  on  which 
years  of  effort  were  expended  is  breaking  under 
the  strain  put  upon  it  by  the  unpopularity  of  the 
doctrines  now  preached  by  the  new  loyalists, 
Redmond,  Devlin  and  Company,  and  all  signs 
point  to  the  bursting  forth  of  the  old  spirit  of 
[208] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

opposition  to  England  and  all  things  English,  and 
to  the  raising  aloft  of  the  old  flag  of  Ireland. 

Advices  received  very  recently  prove  that  Eng- 
land is  alarmed  at  the  evidences  of  seething  dis- 
content and  the  fact  that  many  Nationalists  are 
breaking  away  from  John  Redmond  and  rebelling 
against  his  leadership. 

The  London  Times  (weekly  edition)  of  De- 
cember 11,  1914,  published  the  following  news 
from  Ireland: 

SEDITION  IN  IRELAND 


SEIZURE  OF  "IRISH  FREEDOM" 

A  number  of  police-constables  in  Dublin  visited 
newsvendors'  shops  in  every  district  in  the  city  on 
Thursday  evening  last  week  and  seized  all  the  copies 
on  sale  of  the  publication  known  as  Irish  Freedom. 
They  also  raided  the  offices  of  the  paper,  and  seized 
all  the  copies  there. 

The  printers  of  the  following  publications,  Irish 
Freedom,  Sinn  Fein,  Ireland,  the  Irish  Worker,  the 
Irish  Volunteer,  and  the  Leader  were  warned  that  if 
they  printed  matter  calculated  to  promote  disaffection 
or  to  impair  recruiting  they  would  render  themselves 
liable  to  trial  by  court-martial,  and  to  the  confiscation 
of  their  type  and  plant. 

A  public  meeting  to  protest  against  the  action  of  the 
[209] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

police  was  held  in  Beresford-place,  Dublin,  on  Sunday. 
A  company  of  the  "citizen  army"  of  the  Transport 
Workers'  Union,  with  rifles,  occupied  a  position  in 
Liberty  Hall  overlooking  the  meeting. 

Mr.  James  Connolly,  who  presided,  said  that  had 
the  police  or  military  tried  to  disperse  the  meeting,  the 
rifles  would  not  have  been  silent.  He  also  said  that 
arrangements  were  being  made  to  continue  the  sup- 
pressed papers  in  another  form.  Speeches  were  made 
against  Mr.  Redmond  and  the  Nationalist  Party. 


John  Redmond  is  to-day  acting  in  harmony 
with  the  traditional  policy  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment in  Ireland.  The  Liberal  government,  with 
his  tacit  consent,  has  prohibited  the  Irish  World 
of  New  York  from  entering  Ireland,  although 
the  Irish  World  has  long  been  his  chief 
newspaper  support  in  America  and  had  raised 
$800,000  to  sustain  the  party.  That  journal  could 
not  agree  with  the  policy  of  recruiting  advocated 
by  him,  and  for  that  reason  Redmond  betrays 
the  Irish  World  to  the  government  and  destroys 
its  large  circulation  in  Ireland. 

The  majority  section  of  the  National  Volun- 
teers who  refused  to  follow  Redmond  are  being 
persecuted  by  the  government.  A  young  man, 
employed  as  a  salesman  by  a  Dublin  wholesale 

[210] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

grocer,  was  discharged  by  his  Tory  employer  for 
differing  with  Redmond's  policy,  and  writes  that 
he  expects  to  be  imprisoned  unless  he  leaves  the 
country.  Officers  of  the  volunteers  have  been  dis- 
missed from  railways,  breweries  and  insurance 
companies.  Government  servants,  suspected  of 
having  similar  opinions,  have  been  dismissed. 
Houses  are  being  searched  for  arms,  suspected 
meetings  are  patrolled  by  armed  soldiers,  no  re- 
volver can  be  sold  in  a  hardware  store  unless  re- 
ported, gunsmiths  have  to  send  inventories  of 
their  stock  to  the  authorities.  The  government 
seized  a  lot  of  rifles  on  the  way  to  Ireland.  Thou- 
sands of  letters  from  Americans  to  relatives  and 
friends  in  Ireland  are  opened,  and  men  are  jailed 
daily  for  protesting  against  recruiting. 

Although  the  German  torpedo  boat  sunk  the 
super-dreadnaught  Audacious,  two  months  ago, 
just  off  the  County  Donegal,  naturally  the  big 
war  news  event  for  Ireland,  not  an  Irish  news- 
paper dare  print  a  word  of  the  disaster.  The 
British  newspapers  blame  the  "extremists"  for 
the  small  number  of  Nationalists  recruiting,  but 
say  that  Redmond  has  done  the  best  he  could 
and  is  to  be  made  a  peer  of  the  realm  after  the 
war. 

[211] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

The  recruiting  posters  for  the  army  afford' 
curious  reading  for  the  student  of  Irish  history. 
There  is  one  posted  over  the  walls  and  bill- 
boards of  County  Cork. 

MEN  OF  MUNSTER 

UP   WITH 

THE  IRISH  BRIGADE 
ALL  IRELAND  is  JOINING 
ARE  WE  AFRAID?    NO! 

The  Royal  Munster  Fusiliers,  The  Royal  Irish 

Regiment,  Leinster  Regiment  and 

Connaught  Rangers 

NOW  RECRUITING — JOIN  AT  ONCE 

AND  BE  FOREMOST  IN  THE  FIGHT  FOR  IRELAND 
AND  FOR  LIBERTY 

Mr.  John  Redmond,  M.P.,  says: 

And  for  my  part  I  trust  and  believe  that  the  man- 
hood of  Ireland  will  not  be  content  only  to  remain  at 
home  waiting  and  watching,  while  other  men  are  risk- 
ing their  lives  to  defend  their  liberties. 

Mr.  William  O'Brien,  M.P.,  says: 

The  hour  has  come,   every  man  worth  his  salt, 

worthy  of  belonging  to  our  fighting  race,  has  got  to 

step  into  the  fighting  line. 

[212] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Mr.  Joseph  Devlin,  M.P.,  says : 

Irish  Volunteers,  emulate  the  example  of  your  fore- 
fathers who  fought  in  the  Irish  Brigade  in  France.  I 
am  proud  of  the  700  young  National  Volunteers  of 
Belfast  who  have  responded  to  the  call  of  duty. 

Besides  your  pay,  your  wives,  children  and  depend- 
ents will  be  cared  for  during  your  absence. 

Per  Week 

Wives  will  receive 12/6 

Each  child  2/6 

Mothers  and  other  dependents,  from 3/  to  2O/ 

Disabled — The  government  has  undertaken  that  any 
man  permanently  disabled  will  receive  an  ade- 
quate pension  to  recompense  him  for  the  loss  he 
sustains  in  wage-earning  capacity. 

THE  PRINCIPAL  CORK  EMPLOYERS 
Have  promised  to  keep  your  places  open  for  you  at 
the  end  of  the  war,  and  will  also  see  that  your  family 
and  dependents  are  as  well  off  during  your  absence  as 
they  are  at  present. 

Joseph  Devlin*,  asking  for  an  Irish  brigade, 
like  the  Irish  brigade  of  Fontenoy  and  Landen, 
is  a  spectacle  of  slavish  submission  which  causes 
patriotic  men  to  hang  their  heads  in  shame.  The 
contrast  between  an  Irish  brigade,  in  1915,  fight- 
ing for  England  against  the  intrepid  Germans, 
[213] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

always  the  friends  of  the  Irish  throughout  the 
world,  and  the  heroes  of  the  Irish  brigade  who 
won  the  battle  of  Fontenoy,  defeating  the  Eng- 
lish, is  simply  indescribable.  Devlin's  compari- 
son is  sacrilegious  enough  to  awaken  from  the 
tomb  Thomas  Davis,  the  national  poet,  who  made 
the  stirring  ballad  about  the  Franco-Irish  victory 
at  Fontenoy: 

O'Brien's  voice  is  hoarse  with  joy,  as,  halting,  he  com- 
mands, 

"Fix  bay'nets ! — Charge !"   Like  mountain  storm  rush 
on  those  fiery  bands, 

Thin  is  the  English  column  now,  and  faint  their  vol- 
leys grow, 

Yet,  mustering  all  the  strength  they  have,  they  make  a 
gallant  show. 

They  dress  their  ranks  upon  the  hill  to  meet  that  battle 
wind, 

Their  bayonets  the  breakers'  foam, — like  rocks  the 
men  behind! 

One  volley  crashes  from  their  line,  when  through  the 
surging  smoke, 

With  empty  guns  clutched  in  their  hands,  the  headlong 
Irish  broke. 

On  Fontenoy,  on  Fontenoy,  hark  to  that  fierce  huzza ! 

"Revenge !  remember  Limerick !  dash  down  the  Sassa- 
nagh !" 

Like  lions  leaping  at  the  fold,  when  mad  with  hunger's 
pang, 

[214] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Right  up  against  the  English  line  the  Irish  exiles 

sprang : 
Bright  was  their  steel,  'tis  bloody  now,  their  guns  are 

filled  with  gore, 

Through  shattered  ranks  and  severed  files  and  tram- 
pled flags  they  tore. 
The  English  strove  with  desperate  strength,  paused, 

rallied,  staggered,  fled, 
The  green  hillside  is  matted  close  with  dying  and  with 

dead. 
Across  the  plain  and  far  away  passed  on  that  hideous 

wrack, 

While  cavalier  and  fantassin  dash  in  upon  their  track. 
On  Fontenoy,  on  Fontenoy,  like  eagles  in  the  sun, 
With  bloody  plumes  the  Irish  stand, — the  field   is 

fought  and  won. 

Joseph  Devlin  is  the  boss  of  the  Irish  political 
machine.  He  operates  the  levers  through  the 
Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians,  which  is  organized 
most  effectively  to  control  the  country,  the  Parlia- 
mentary Party.  As  an  organizer,  Devlin  is  able, 
ambitious  and  shrewd.  He  expects  to  become  the 
real  political  power,  in  the  event  of  Home  Rule, 
and  he  has  succeeded  in  placing  many  of  his  fol- 
lowers on  the  British  payroll.  The  writer  learned 
in  Ireland  that  Joseph  Devlin  had  been  the  most 
successful  Irishman  of  the  present  generation  in 
[215] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

securing  employment  under  the  British  Govern- 
ment for  the  party  workers.  There  are  very  few 
exceptions  to  the  rule  that  once  an  Irishman  gets 
on  the  government  pay-roll  it  is  the  end  of  him  as 
a  patriotic  force.  The  Devlin  machine  through- 
out Ireland  operates  the  Ancient  Order  of  Hi- 
bernians, which  is  a  political  organization  quite 
unlike  the  order  in  America.  The  Hibernians 
in  Ireland,  under  the  able  and  shrewd  manipula- 
tion of  Joseph  Devlin,  national  president,  form 
an  organization  as  practical  as  Tammany  Hall 
and  better  organized. 

THE  SHAN  VAN  VOCHT* 

O,  the  Germans  are  on  the  sea, 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht; 
The  Germans  are  on  the  sea, 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht ; 
O,  the  Germans  are  in  the  bay, 

They'll  be  here  without  delay 
And  the  Orange  will  decay, 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 
O,  the  Germans  are  in  the  bay, 

They'll  be  here  by  break  of  day, 
And  the  Orange  will  decay, 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 

*A  century-old  song  modified. 

[2161 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

And  where  will  they  have  their  camp  ? 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 
Where  will  they  have  their  camp? 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 
On  the  Curragh  of  Kildare, 

The  boys  they  will  be  there 
With  their  rifles  in  good  repair, 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 
To  the  Curragh  of  Kildare 

The  boys  they  will  repair, 
And  the  leaders  will  be  there, 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 

Then  what  will  the  patriots  do  ? 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 
What  will  the  patriots  do  ? 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 
What  should  the  patriots  do, 

But  throw  off  the  red  and  blue, 
And  swear  that  they'll  be  true 

To  the  Shan  Van  Vocht? 

What  should  the  patriots  do  ? 

And  what  color  will  they  wear? 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 
What  color  will  they  wear  ? 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 
What  color  should  be  seen 

Where  our  fathers'  homes  have  been 
But  their  own  immortal  green  ? 
[217] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 
What  color  should  be  seen? 

And  will  Ireland  then  be  free  ? 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 
Will  Ireland  then  be  free? 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 
Yes!  Ireland  shall  be  free 

From  the  centre  to  the  sea ; 
Then  hurrah  for  Liberty ! 

Says  the  Shan  Van  Vocht. 

Yes!    Ireland  shall  be  free. 


[218] 


CHAPTER  XXI 

HOW  ENGLAND  SERVES  UP  THE   NEWS  FOR 
THE  WORLD 

JOHN  MITCHELL,  the  grandfather  of  the  present 
young  Mayor  of  New  York  City,  said  that,  wrong 
or  right,  "England  has  the  ear  of  the  world." 
During  the  first  two  months  of  the  war  it  is  esti- 
mated that  90  per  cent,  of  the  war  news  printed 
in  average  American  newspapers  came  through 
English  channels  and  by  English  press  arrange- 
ments. In  order  to  suppress  news  from  Ger- 
many, the  German  cables  were  cut  before  August 
5th.  A  flock  of  British  special  writers  appeared 
in  the  United  States.  The  Germans  labored 
under  the  disadvantage  of  their  language  in  this 
strange  country.  The  letters  from  their  profes- 
sors and  authors  were  poorly  adapted  to  the 
American  newspaper  style  and  habit  of  reading, 
and  the  artists  who  write  our  wonderful  head 
lines,  innocently,  humorously  or  purposely,  as  the 
case  may  be,  caused  them  to  vary  in  grotesque 
wordings.  Then,  too,  the  pleas  were  too  long  to 
[219] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

be  read  by  the  spoiled  and  impatient  American 
newspaper  reader.* 

One  man,  above  all,  has  caused  truth  as  to 
Germany  finally  to  work  itself  clear  in  the  light 
of  reason.  I  refer  to  the  achievements  of  Doc- 
tor Bernhard  Dernburg,  of  Berlin,  former  Min- 
ister in  the  German  Cabinet,  living  at  present  in 
New  York.  This  man  has  stripped  the  mask  of 
hypocrisy  off  the  face  of  John  Bull,  exposed  the 
falsity  of  his  claim  to  be  the  saviour  of  small 
nations,  and  pilloried  the  English  writers  with 
proven  facts  and  figures,  which  literary  feats,  so 
able,  thorough  and  skilful,  have  captivated  the 
imagination  and  impressed  the  reasoning  powers 
of  the  thinking  section  of  the  American  public. 
While  the  English  writers  for  American  publi- 
cations are  quarrelling  among  themselves  as  to 
the  causes  or  necessity  of  the  war,  and  calling 
their  opponents  names  or  applying  epithets,  Dr. 
Dernburg  never  loses  his  temper,  steadily  aims 
and  hits  the  bull's-eye,  and  is  an  epitome  of 
the  faith,  steadiness  and  efficiency  which  charac- 
terizes Germany.  There  is  a  charm  to  his  diction 

*The  writer  refers  only  to  writers  and  publicists  in  Germany. 
The  brilliant  and  effective  work  of  Mr.  Herman  Ridder,  editor 
of  the  New  York  Stoats  Zeitung,  is  invaluable,  likewise  many 
German  newspapers  printed  in  the  United  States. 
[220] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

and  an  element  of  grim  humor  which  make  his 
letters  seem  like  literary  gems.  He  lived  in  New 
York  for  many  years,  where  he  was  trained  as  a 
banker,  and  his  father  was  owner  of  the  Berlin 
Tageblatt.  He  has  convinced  many  Americans  of 
the  falsity  and  injustice  of  much  of  the  news  car- 
rying London  dates.  This  poisoning  of  the 
world's  news  during  the  world's  struggle  is  grad- 
ually being  resented  by  American  journals.  The 
following  editorial  appeared  in  the  New  York 
American  of  December  10,  1914: 

HOW  ENGLAND  MAKES  AND  UNMAKES 
NATIONAL  REPUTATIONS 

"That  acute  observer  of  international  affairs,  Mr. 
Arthur  Moore,  sets  forth  very  clearly  one  of  the 
reasons  for  England's  domination  of  world  opinion. 
It  is  quite  true  as  he  points  out,  and  as  every  Ameri- 
can traveler  abroad  notices,  that  the  American  news 
selected  for  publication  by  London  papers  is  largely 
that  of  matters  discreditable  to  us  as  a  social  organiza- 
tion— lynchings,  murders,  large  defalcations,  Con- 
gressional futilities,  etc.  And  any  man  of  cosmopoli- 
tan habit  knows  that  the  news  we  get  of  Continental 
Europe,  through  London,  is  equally  misleading. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  even  in  peace  times  The 
American  maintains  in  Paris  and  Berlin  its  own  news 
bureaus,  and  has  its  special  correspondents  scattered 

[221] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

all  over  Europe.  While,  during  the  existing  strug- 
gle, it  is  fortunate  in  being  able  to  present  to  its  read- 
ers the  war  news  gathered  by  the  London  Times  and 
the  London  Telegraph,  it  supplements  and  corrects  the 
news  thus  obtained  by  the  reports  of  the  Berlin  Lokal 
Anzeiger,  the  Paris  Matin  and  its  army  of  special  cor- 
respondents in  the  theatre  of  war.  Withal  a  large 
staff  of  editors  is  kept  busy  correcting  the  tendency  of 
British  correspondents  to  exalt  their  nation's  virtues 
at  the  expense  of  the  rest  of  the  world." — EDITOR  OF 
THE  AMERICAN. 


Mr.  Arthur  Moore  says : 

"England  has  controlled  the  news  of  the  world 
for  more  than  a  century.  It  has  been  her  greatest 
diplomatic  weapon.  It  has  probably  gained  more 
for  her  than  her  huge  navy  and  her  fine  army. 
More  than  once  it  has  saved  her  from  serious 
loss. 

"Not  one  great  event  but  has  been  seen  for  the 
rest  of  the  world  through  English  eyes  or  told  to 
the  rest  of  the  world  as  England  wished  to  tell 
it.  The  traditional  racial  characteristics  of  each 
of  us  were  fitted  upon  us  by  England  for  all  the 
world  to  learn  by  heart.  And  the  myth  of  "Brit- 
ish fair  play"  stands  above  all  the  characteriza- 
[222] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

tions  we  suffer  under  as  the  greatest  masterpiece 
of  them  all. 


"Europe  knows  America  and  we  misunderstand 
Europe  through  news  bearing  the  London  date. 
Negro  burning,  the  Camorra,  bull  fights,  the 
Dreyfus  case,  Russian  Jew  slaughters,  pass  to  and 
fro  as  "news"  through  London. 

"Since  the  establishment  of  the  Triple  Entente, 
London  remade  the  French  character  for  the 
world.  On  the  date  of  the  Entente's  beginning, 
the  myth  of  French  decadence  became  the  miracle 
of  French  renaissance.  From  the  same  moment 
the  "bear  that  walks  like  a  man"  was  trans- 
formed by  Dr.  Dillon  and  a  host  of  lesser  Eng- 
lish into  a  simple  Christian  hero. 

"Every  one  remembers  the  English-told  story  of 
the  Japanese- Russian  War,  that  story  that  drove 
us  mad  with  admiration  for  the  Japanese,  Eng- 
land's allies;  that  made  us  forget  the  great  un- 
selfish friendship  of  Russia  in  the  time  of  our 
own  great  war.  From  London  the  news  poured 
into  our  newspapers  always  for  Japan,  till  we 
served  as  England's  tool  to  help  humiliate  Rus- 
[3*3] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

sia  by  a  disastrous  peace  and  hated  the  Japanese 
since  the  next  day  after  the  treaty  was  signed. 

OUR  PANAMA  ARGUMENTS  SUPPRESSED 

"Our  own  Panama  Canal  controversy  with  Eng- 
land is  fresh  in  the  minds  of  all.  Our  side,  just 
if  ever  anything  was  just,  never  was  heard  by 
the  rest  of  the  world,  scarcely  was  heard  by  us. 
In  every  German,  French  and  Italian  journal  we 
were  spoken  of  as  a  nation  without  honor,  as 
cheats  and  thieves  by  birth  and  traditions,  ahvays 
in  dispatches  from  London.  The  facts  were 
twisted  and  misrepresented  in  these  London 
"news  items,"  and  interviews  with  every  promi- 
nent man  who  took  the  English  side  were  sent 
broadcast  until  even  we  ourselves  were  shaken  in 
our  faith  in  our  cause.  It  is  all  over  now,  the 
English  control  of  the  distribution  of  interna- 
tional news  beat  us,  that  and  nothing  else.  And 
it  is  something  not  to  be  good-naturedly  for- 
gotten. 

"The  menace  of  German  militarism  became 
known  to  the  world,  curiouly  enough,  about  the 
time  that  the  French  became  regenerate  and  the 
Russians  finally  "tucked  in  their  shirts,"  that  is, 
about  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  Entente. 
[224] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

From  that  date  onward  till  the  beginning  of  the 
war  we  heard  more  and  more  of  this  new  menace 
that  had  taken  the  place  of  the  Slav  hordes  as 
the  world-wide  bugaboo.  And  it  was  not  from 
France,  but  from  England,  that  the  tales  of  this 
new  terror  came. 

"When  the  great  war  broke  upon  the  world  we 
were  already  prepared  to  believe  everything 
against  the  Germans,  as  we  were  ready  to  be- 
lieve everything  against  the  Russians  when  they 
were  fighting  the  Japanese,  allies  of  England. 

A  MONOPOLY  OF  NEWS  VALUABLE 

"Newspapers  do  not  manufacture  news.  They 
can  only  collect  it  from  the  best  available  sources 
and  present  it  to  their  readers  in  the  most  ac- 
ceptable form.  That  the  best  available  source  of 
all  international  news  is  now,  as  it  always  has 
been,  England,  is  the  fault  of  no  one.  But  it  is 
a  serious  fact  that  ought  to  be  realized  fully  and 
constantly  by  every  man  and  woman  who  reads 
the  newspapers  in  these  times.  To-day  almost  all 
the  important  news  is  foreign  news,  and  it  is 
news  about  events  that  are  changing  the  whole 
world.  Never  before  has  England's  monopoly 
of  international  news  been  of  so  tremendous  a 
[225] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

value  to  England  or  so  dangerous  to  the  rest 
of  the  world. 

"One  need  not  be  pro-German  to  fear  and  to 
distrust  the  use  to  which  England  may  put  this 
tremendous  power  that  she  possesses;  one  need 
only  be  a  little  thoughtful.  We  may  well  be 
called  upon  as  a  nation  to  play  a  very  important 
part  in  the  final  adjustments  following  this  con- 
flict. And  if  we  open-eyed  fall  a  victim  once 
more  to  this  most  powerful  weapon  of  British 
diplomacy  we  may  fail  in  playing  our  part  in 
a  manner  that  we  may  lastingly  regret.  Day  by 
day  our  judgment  is  being  undermined  by  this 
force  in  the  hands  of  England.  But  knowing  it 
we  ought  to  guard  against  it,  pro-German  and 
anti-German  alike,  till  the  war  is  over." 

"The  English  mobilization  of  the  news"  is  a 
phrase  that  exactly  describes  British  press  activ- 
ities. It  has  been  used  by  an  Austrian  journalist, 
Mr.  Rudolf  Kommer.  "We  were  intensely 
struck  by  the  literary  quality  of  the  'atrocity 
stories/  "  says  Mr.  Kommer,  describing  his  im- 
pressions of  London  in  the  first  days  of  the  war. 
"While  our  colleagues  in  Germany  and  Austria 
and  France  and  Russia  were  admiring  the  over- 
[226] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

whelming  features  of  the  mobilization  of  the 
armies,  we  were  exhausting  ourselves  in  admira- 
tion for  the  English  mobilization  of  the  news." 
The  strict  censorship  exercised  by  the  military 
authorities  in  London  is  merely  the  reverse  side 
of  English  journalist  activity.  The  newspaper 
readers  in  the  British  Islands  have  been  told  all 
about  the  insurrections  in  Hungary  and  Bohemia, 
but  they  have  not  yet  heard  about  the  sinking  of 
the  Audacious  off  the  coast  of  Donegal  east. 

However,  none  of  the  results  of  the  war  so  far 
has  come  through  and  the  following  account  of 
the  prisoners  of  war  in  German  hands  was  given 
in  The  Irish  Times  of  January  7,  1915 : 

PRISONERS  OF  WAR  IN  GERMANY 

A  FORMIDABLE   TOTAL 

The  following  official  statement  has  been  issued 
from  the  German  Chief  Headquarters: 

The  total  number  of  prisoners  of  war  interned  in 
Germany,  not  including  civilian  prisoners,  is  8,138 
officers  and  577,475  men. 

The  figures  do  not  include  a  number  of  those  taken 
prisoner  in  the  course  of  the  pursuit  in  Russian  Po- 
land, nor  those  at  present  on  their  way  to  concentra- 
tion camps.  The  number  of  interned  prisoners  is  made 
up  as  follows: 

[227] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

OFFICERS  MEN 

French    3,459  215,505 

Russians    3,575  306,294 

Belgians   612  36,852 

British    492  18,824 


Totals 8,138        577.475 

Among  the  captured  officers  are  stated  to  be  seven 
French  generals,  eighteen  Russian  generals,  and  three 
Beligian  generals. 

The  official  statement  continues :  The  Russian  state- 
ment, alleged  to  have  been  issued  by  the  Russian  War 
Minister,  that  1,140  German  officers  and  134,700  men 
have  been  captured  by  the  Russians,  is  incorrect,  as 
the  Russian  figures  include  all  civilians  arrested  on 
and  since  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  The  number  of 
actual  prisoners  is  not  more  than  15  per  cent,  of  these 
figures. 

Mighty  marvels  of  transformation  in  the  ra- 
cial and  national  character  of  the  Allies  have 
been  performed  by  the  British  journalists.  And 
many  of  the  American  editors  have  literally  swal- 
lowed these  fantastic  and  absurd  characteriza- 
tions, dated  London,  without  giving  a  thought 
to  history.  Furnish  us  dispatches,  false  or  true, 
but  dispatches !  We  care  not  who  furnishes  the 
news  let  us,  but  write  the  lurid  headlines!  The 
[228] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

decadent,  obscene,  irreligious  French  nation,  as 
England  regarded  that  great  people  not  long 
since,  are  now  passing  through  a  period  of  renais- 
sance. The  pathetic  stories  of  nuns  and  heroic 
priests  from  France  make  us  forget  Viviani,  the 
French  premier,  who  said,  in  driving  the  nuns 
out  of  France,  that  he  had  "extinguished  the 
lights  in  heaven."  The  Russians  who,  according 
to  Kipling,  were  styled  the  "bear  that  walks  like 
a  man,"  are  now  the  intrepid  guardians  of  civili- 
zation, while  the  Sepoys,  who  were  tied  to  and 
shot  from  the  mouths  of  English  cannon  only 
sixty  years  ago,  are  styled  "our  brave  and 
swarthy  allies  from  India." 


[229] 


CHAPTER  XXII 

NEW  YORK  PUBLIC  OPINION 

THE  discerning  and  thinking  American  citizen 
pays  little  attention  to  the  fickle  thing  called 
"majority  of  public  opinion."  You  can  travel  on 
the  Continent,  all  the  way  from  Barcelona,  Spain, 
to  London,  and  you  will  see  thousands  of  monu- 
ments erected  to  commemorate  the  memory  of 
patriots,  but  never  one  was  in  a  majority  at  first, 
or  for  most  of  his  life.  Every  work  of  revolu- 
tion has  come  from  a  determined  minority. 
George  Washington,  the  Father  of  our  Country, 
was  at  the  head  of  a  resolute  minority.  If  he 
had  failed,  England  would  have  hung  him  on  the 
scaffold,  like  Emmet,  as  a  rebel. 

Woodrow  Wilson,  in  his  "History  of  the 
American  People,"  writing  of  the  American 
Revolution,  says:  "It  is  the  familiar  story  of 
revolution;  the  active  an'd  efficient  concert  of  a 
comparatively  small  number  at  a  moment  of 
doubt  and  crisis."  Garibaldi,  with  ten  thousand 
followers  clad  in  red  shirts,  united  Italy  and 
made  a  kingdom  out  of  political  fragments.  The 
[230] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

immortal  Robert  Emmet  mustered  no  more  than 
a  few  thousand  followers,  but  his  name  is  ven- 
erated, and  his  short  life  commemorated  more 
than  any  other  in  Ireland's  long  and  pathetic 
history. 

New  York  City  is  to-day  the  stronghold  of 
Toryism  and  English  snobbery,  as  it  was  in  the 
days  of  George  Washington  and  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. In  the  dark  days  of  1776  and  of  1861  the 
so-called  "public  opinion"  of  New  York  and  the 
newspapers  of  the  city  opposed  the  national  and 
patriotic  cause.  Washington  distrusted  the  New 
York  City  merchant  class.  In  1861  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  caricatured  as  an  ape  by  the  metro- 
politan press,  inspired  by  London.  For  fifteen 
decades  the  New  York  City  newspapers,  or  the 
majority  of  them,  have  been  led  in  international 
politics,  and  in  the  world's  business,  by  London. 
Their  real  influence  in  the  United  States  is  small, 
and  steadily  receding  in  the  West,  which  controls 
the  country  in  public  affairs.  The  favor  of  certain 
New  York  City  newspapers  is  disastrous  to  all 
national  aspirants  for  public  honors.  The  dele- 
gation from  New  York  State,  the  largest,  is  the 
most  impotent  in  Congress.  The  voice  of  New 
York  City  is  local  and  does  not  even  control  the 
[231] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

commonwealth  of  the  State  of  New  York — to 
say  nothing  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
The  Irish  emigrants  of  New  York  in  1776  were 
the  first  to  enroll  in  the  Revolution,  and  George 
Washington  became  a  member  of  the  first  Irish 
Revolutionary  society  in  New  York,  the  Sons  of 
Saint  Patrick.  Without  the  support  of  the  Irish, 
the  colony  of  New  York  would  not  have  em- 
braced the  American  Constitution.  When  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  was  submitted,  New 
York  was  loyal  to  England.  Thomas  Jefferson 
announced  his  distrust  of  New  York.  George 
Washington,  satisfied  of  the  devotion  of  Phila- 
delphia and  Boston,  determined  that  he  would 
transfer  his  headquarters  to  New  York,  and  re- 
lied on  the  intrepid  Irish  patriots  for  support. 
He  took  charge  of  a  hostile  commonwealth  (see 
Woodrow  Wilson's  "History  of  the  American 
People,"  page  243,  Vol.  2).  There  were  enough 
Tory  sympathizers  to  lose  him  New  York,  and 
fearing  treachery  on  the  part  of  the  residents, 
Washington  retreated  from  New  York  in  the  fall 
of  1776.  "These  are  the  times  that  try  men's 
souls,"  said  Thomas  Paine  in  December,  1776. 
Confident  of  New  York,  the  British  followed 
Washington  to  the  Delaware.  The  soldiers  of 
[232] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Washington  were  starving  when  1,800  Irish  rifle- 
men reached  him  from  New  York,  and  the  Sons 
of  Saint  Patrick  sent  him  $24,000  in  gold.  This 
brought  his  force  up  to  7,200  fighting  men.  The 
English  army  in  America  was  then  18,000 
troops.  The  year  before,  the  first  general  to  die 
was  Richard  Montgomery,  friend  of  Washing- 
ton, native  of  Raphoe,  Ireland. 

The  year  1777  was  a  terrible  year  for  George 
Washington.  He  was  outnumbered,  betrayed, 
his  troops  were  freezing  and  starving,  and  Brit- 
ish gold  controlled  New  York.  The  English  had 
hired  the  Hessian  mercenaries  to  fight,  when, 
according  to  Woodrow  Wilson,  historian,  "as  the 
year  drew  to  its  close  the  great  Frederick  of 
Prussia  had  forbidden  troops  hired  in  the  other 
German  states  to  cross  Prussian  territory  to 
serve  the  English  in  America."  Valley  Forge  is 
the  Limerick  of  America.  The  English  hired 
the  savage  Mohawk  Indians  to  destroy  the  wives 
and  children  of  the  American  colonists.  France 
took  the  side  of  America  because  she  was  at  war 
with  England  on  the  Continent.  Paul  Jones  bom- 
barded English  ports  in  1779,  and  116  years  later 
(1915)  the  Germans  are  firing  on  the  same  Eng- 
lish cities.  The  English  bought  Benedict  Arnold 
away  from  George  Washington  by  the  promise 
[233] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

of  high  office,  exactly  as  the. English  Government 
of  1914  has  bought  John  Redmond,  the  Irish 
leader,  by  the  promise  of  office  under  the  local 
Home  Rule  Bill. 

The  treason  of  Benedict  Arnold  is  recorded  in 
his  pass  to  Major  Andre,  the  British  spy,  Septem- 
ber 22,  1780,  which  read:  "Permit  Mr.  John 
Anderson  to  pass  to  White  Plains  on  business." 
I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  prospect  of  high 
office  under  the  local  Home  Rule  bill  has  been  all 
persuasive  in  inducing  John  Redmond  to  adopt 
a  course  that  will  lead  to  many  friends  of  Ireland 
comparing  him  to  Benedict  Arnold. 

Let  Erin  remember  the  days  of  old, 

'Ere  her  faithless  sons  betrayed  her, 

When  Malachi  wore  the  collar  of  gold, 

Which  he  won  from  her  proud  invader, 

When  her  Kings  with  standard  of  green  unfurled 

Led  the  Red  Branch  Knights  to  danger, 

'Ere  the  emerald  gem  of  the  western  world 

Was  set  in  the  crown  of  the  Stranger. 

The  sons  and  descendants  of  the  Celts  and  the 
Gaels,  throughout  the  imperial  commonwealth  of 
New  York,  have  repudiated  the  treachery  of 
Redmond  to  the  cause  of  "Ireland  a  Nation."  In 
the  largest  halls  of  New  York,  Carnegie  Hall, 
Terrace  Garden,  the  Academy  of  Music  in  Brook- 
[234] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

lyn,  vast  multitudes  have  gathered  to  denounce 
the  betrayal  of  the  national  cause.  The  women 
have  vied  with  the  men  in  the  enthusiasm  of  their 
gatherings.  The  Sons  of  Ulster,  Leinster,  Mun- 
ster  and  Connaught,  through  their  brotherhood 
of  county  societies,  representing  practically  all 
the  men  of  New  York  who  have  ever  done  any- 
thing for  Ireland,  have  voiced  the  true  feeling. 
The  fourth  of  March,  1915,  the  anniversary  of 
the  martyr — Robert  Emmet — is  near  at  hand. 
Hundreds  of  meetings  are  under  way  for  that 
day.  All  will  extend  sympathy  and  encourage- 
ment to  our  German  friends  and  neighbors.  True 
Nationalists  have  been  taught  for  generations 
that  in  England's  emergency  will  be  found  the 
sole  opportunity  for  the  liberty  of  Ireland. 

On  August  18,  1914,  President  Wilson  ad- 
dressed to  the  American  people  a  powerful  appeal 
in  behalf  of  a  broad  neutrality.  In  "The  White 
Papers,"  republished  from  the  New  York  Times, 
an  able  and  influential  newspaper,  the  following 
copy  of  the  proclamation  appears : 

I  suppose  that  every  thoughtful  man  in  America  has 
asked  himself  during  the  last  troubled  weeks  what  in- 
fluence the  European  war  may  exert  upon  the  United 
States,  and  I  take  the  liberty  of  addressing  a  few 
[235] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

words  to  you  in  order  to  point  out  that  it  is  entirely 
within  our  own  choice  what  its  effects  upon  us  will  be 
and  to  urge  very  earnestly  upon  you  the  sort  of  speech 
and  conduct  which  will  best  safeguard  the  nation 
against  distress  and  disaster. 

The  effect  of  the  war  upon  the  United  States  will 
depend  upon  what  American  citizens  say  or  do.  Every 
man  who  really  loves  America  will  act  and  speak  in 
the  true  spirit  of  neutrality,  which  is  the  spirit  of  im- 
partiality and  fairness  and  friendliness  to  all  con- 
cerned. The  spirit  of  the  nation  in  this  critical  matter 
will  be  determined  largely  by  what  individuals  and 
society  and  those  gathered  in  public  meetings  do  and 
say,  upon  what  newspapers  and  magazines  contain, 
upon  what  our  ministers  utter  in  their  pulpits  and  men 
proclaim  as  their  opinions  on  the  streets. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  are  drawn  from 
many  nations,  and  chiefly  from  the  nations  now  at 
war.  It  is  natural  and  inevitable  that  there  should 
be  the  utmost  variety  of  sympathy  and  desire  among 
them  with  regard  to  the  issues  and  circumstances  of 
the  conflict.  Some  will  wish  one  nation,  others  an- 
other to  succeed  in  the  momentous  struggle.  It  will 
be  easy  to  excite  passion  and  difficult  to  allay  it.  Those 
responsible  for  exciting  it  will  assume  a  heavy  re- 
sponsibility ;  responsibility  for  no  less  a  thing  than  that 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  whose  love  of  their 
country  and  whose  loyalty  to  its  Government  should 
unite  them  as  Americans  all,  bound  in  honor  and  af- 
fection to  think  first  of  her  and  her  interests,  may  be 
divided  in  camps  of  hostile  opinions,  hot  against  each 
[236] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

other,  involved  in  the  war  itself  in  impulse  and  opin- 
ion, if  not  in  action.  Such  diversions  among  us  would 
be  fatal  to  our  peace  of  mind  and  might  seriously 
stand  in  the  way  of  the  proper  performance  of  our 
duty  as  the  one  great  nation  at  peace,  the  one  people, 
holding  itself  ready  to  play  a  part  of  impartial  media- 
tion and  speak  the  counsels  of  peace  and  accommoda- 
tion, not  as  a  partisan,  but  as  a  friend. 

I  venture,  therefore,  my  fellow-countrymen,  to 
speak  a  solemn  word  of  warning  to  you  against  that 
deepest,  most  subtle,  most  essential  breach  of  neutral- 
ity which  may  spring  out  of  partisanship,  out  of  pas- 
sionately taking  sides.  The  United  States  must  be  neu- 
tral in  fact  as  well  as  in  name  during  these  days  that 
are  to  try  men's  souls.  We  must  be  impartial  in 
thought  as  well  as  in  action,  must  put  a  curb  upon  our 
sentiments  as  well  as  upon  ever  transaction  that  might 
be  construed  as  a  preference  of  one  party  to  the  strug- 
gle before  another. 

My  thought  is  of  America.  I  am  speaking,  I  feel 
sure,  the  earnest  wish  and  purpose  of  every  thoughtful 
American  that  this  great  country  of  ours,  which  is, 
of  course,  the  first  in  our  thoughts  and  in  our  hearts, 
should  show  herself  in  this  time  of  peculiar  trial  a  na- 
tion fit  beyond  others  to  exhibit  the  fine  poise  of  undis- 
turbed judgment,  the  dignity  of  self-control,  the  effi- 
ciency of  dispassionate  action,  a  nation  that  neither 
sits  in  judgment  upon  others  nor  is  disturbed  in  her 
own  counsels,  and  which  keeps  herself  fit  and  free  to 
do  what  is  honest  and  disinterested  and  truly  service- 
able for  the  peace  of  the  world. 
[237] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Shall  we  not  resolve  to  put  upon  ourselves  the  re- 
straint which  will  bring  to  our  people  the  happiness 
and  the  great  and  lasting  influence  for  peace  we  covet 
for  them? 

WOODROW  WILSON. 

Although  six  months  have  passed,  we  find  the 
New  York  Times  one  of  the  most  flagrant  daily 
violators  of  the  President's  admonition.  A  sample 
of  the  Times'  "neutrality"  may  be  noticed  in  an 
editorial  of  February  10,  1915.  The  Times  says: 

The  chief  moral  superstition  in  Germany  to-day  is 
that  concerning  divine  right.  The  future  of  the  Ger- 
man people  is  being  sacrificed  to  that  exploded  notion. 
Six  months  of  war  with  no  result  save  "calumnies  and 
hatred  and  bitter  hostility  everywhere"  is  enough  to 
dishearten  the  German  soldiers  and  the  German  peo- 
ple. There  have  been  other  results — Germany  has 
brought  upon  itself  not  alone  the  condemnation  of 
the  civilized  world  outside,  but  sore  distress  and  priva- 
tion within  the  Empire.  The  proofs  of  it  are  too  nu- 
merous to  be  ignored,  and  they  are  multiplying  rapidly. 
Germany  is  like  an  invested  fortress. 

Then  follows  a  long  and  labored  article  show- 
ing that  the  Allies  are  winning  the  war  and  that 
German  victory  is  impossible.  All  this  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  Germany  has  won  all  of  the 
greatest  battles  in  the  war  thus  far,  holds  all  of 
[238] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Belgium,  a  considerable  section  of  France  and 
Russia,  and  has  electrified  the  world  with  her 
naval  exploits.  The  New  York  Herald  indulges 
daily  in  the  most  venomous  cartoons  directed  at 
Germany.  Mr.  Joseph  Choate,  former  Ambassa- 
dor to  Great  Britain,  and  former  President  Eliot, 
of  Harvard  College,  vie  with  the  English  pub- 
licists now  visiting  the  United  States  in  literary 
efforts  aimed  at  the  destruction  of  Germany  and 
the  triumph  of  England.  We  have  waited  pa- 
tiently for  six  months  before  launching  this  much- 
needed  book,  which  represents  a  vast  and  grow- 
ing American  public  opinion,  and  much  as  we 
regret  to  have  the  appearance  of  disregarding  the 
plea  of  our  President  for  neutrality,  to  all  fair- 
minded  men  the  facts  contained  in  this  work  are 
very  necessary  in  order  to  offset  the  unneutral 
propagandas. 


[239] 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

IRISH  OPINION   IN  SOUTH   AMERICA 

THE  sons  of  the  Irish  emigrants  expatriated  to 
the  tropics  and  south  of  the  equator  are  not  de- 
ceived by  the  appeal  of  John  Redmond  to  save 
Ireland  from  the  ruthless  German  invaders.  The 
Irish  in  South  America  and  the  West  Indies, 
while  not  numerous,  are  important,  and  they  are 
usually  men  of  standing  and  exercise  a  good  in- 
fluence on  their  neighbors.  The  Irish  mission 
priests  are  noted  for  their  bravery,  intrepidity 
and  skill  in  handling  the  natives.  After  the 
famine  of  1847  in  Ireland  many  peasants  reached 
the  coasts  of  South  America  and  settled  on  the 
pampas  land  of  Argentine  or  in  Brazil,  Chile, 
Peru  and  along  the  Caribbean  Sea.  The  sons  of 
these  men  have  heard  the  story  of  England  from 
the  lips  of  their  fathers.  A  considerable  number 
of  Irish  emigrants  married  natives  or  women  of 
mixed  blood,  and  it  is  curious  to  meet  black, 
brown  and  olive-skinned  men  bearing  the  names 
O'Brien,  Donnelly,  Brady,  O'Callihan,  O'Hara, 
Maloney,  McDonnell,  O'Ryan  and  Delehanty, 
[240] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

speaking  Spanish  or  Portuguese  with  a  tincture 
of  Irish  brogue.  The  oldest  Irish  families  are 
located  on  the  Pacific  Coast  side  of  the  Continent, 
mostly  in  Peru  and  Chile,  although  the  last 
twenty-five  years  have  brought  more  Irish  emi- 
grants to  the  east  coast  of  South  America.  They 
form  important  colonies  in  the  towns,  and  a  num- 
ber raise  sheep,  cattle  and  coffee  in  the  interior. 
They  are  not  fooled  by  lies  about  the  Germans, 
like  their  countrymen  in  Ireland,  where  there  are 
not  more  than  500  Germans  in  the  island;  but 
in  the  tropics  the  Irish  resident  knows  the  Ger- 
man as  the  most  thorough  and  efficient  of  indi- 
viduals, and  the  type  to  be  studied  and  followed. 
In  the  West  Indies  he  saw  the  jealousies  excited 
in  the  British  colonies  by  the  success  of  the  Ger- 
man salesmen,  bankers,  and  merchants  gradually 
overpowering  the  English  traders.  He  witnessed 
the  Hamburg-American  lines  gradually  forcing 
out  the  English  steamships  in  the  first-class 
steamship  cargo,  tourist  and  passenger  business 
throughout  the  tropics  and  in  the  West  Indies, 
where  even  the  colonists  of  the  English  posses- 
sion, Jamaica,  preferred  the  German  boats  to 
Hayti  and  Porto  Rica.  Your  emigrant  in  the 
Latin-American  countries  knows  only  too  well 
[241] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

the  superiority  of  the  Germans  in  the  world-wide 
commercial  struggle.  Consequently  he  is  not  car- 
ried off  his  feet  by  scare  headlines  in  the  Amer- 
ican, English  and  Irish  newspapers  now  flooding 
the  tropics.  He  sees  all  the  colonists  at  close 
range,  he  has  his  country  and  her  history  before 
him,  and  that  is  why  most  all  of  the  Irish  in  the 
West  Indies,  Central  America  and  South  Amer- 
ica are  outspoken  in  their  opposition  to  recruiting 
Irishmen  to  fight  England's  battle  and  save  her 
from  decline  as  a  world  power. 

Argentina,  with  a  population  of  5,000,000,  is 
the  most  important  country  in  South  America, 
that  is,  the  most  prosperous,  and  contains  the  fin- 
est city  in  the  New  World,  Buenos  Ayres,  second 
only  to  New  York  in  grandeur,  the  Paris  of  the 
Continent.  The  leading  newspaper  in  South 
America,  printed  in  English,  devoted  to  the  Na- 
tionalist Irish  movement,  is  the  Southern  Cross 
of  Buenos  Ayres,  well  printed,  widely  circulated 
and  of  international  interest.  This  journal  repre- 
sents the  views  of  the  Irish  who  live  in  the  tropics 
or  south  of  the  equator.  This  periodical  reaches 
the  United  States,  where  it  is  frequently  quoted 
as  a  unique  proof  that  a  paper  printed  in  English, 
devoted  to  Ireland,  of  rare  literary  value,  can 
[242] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

exist  in  Argentina.  The  following  opinions  of 
the  Southern  Cross  is  the  real  view  of  the  Latin- 
American  Celts : 

"WILL  IRELAND  BE  FALSE  TO  HERSELF?" 

"Ireland  would  be  false  to  her  history  and  to  every 
consideration  of  honor,  good  faith,  and  self-interest  if 
she  sent  her  children  to  die  on  foreign  battlefields, 
fighting  the  battles  of  the  stranger." 

"John  Redmond,  leader  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
mentary Party,  has  issued  the  following  mani- 
festo: 

The  whole-hearted  endorsement  by  the  Irish  peo- 
ple and  the  Irish  Volunteers  of  the  spirit  of  my  decla- 
ration, made  on  the  impulse  of  the  moment,  and  with- 
out seeking  for  any  conditions  whatever,  that  the  de- 
fence of  Ireland  might  safely  be  left  to  the  sons  of 
Ireland  themselves,  shows  the  profound  change  which 
has  been  brought  about  in  the  relations  of  Ireland  to 
the  empire  by  the  events  of  the  past  three  years. 

"We  Irish  all  agree  that  the  defence  of  Ire- 
land ought  to  be  left  to  the  sons  of  Ireland ;  but 
the  British  do  not  agree  to  it  and  so  do  not  leave 
the  defence  of  Ireland  to  the  Irish. 

"The  Irish  people  know,  and  appreciate  the 
fact  fully,  that,  at  last,  after  centuries  of  misun- 
[243] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

derstanding,  the  democracy  of  Great  Britain  has 
finally  and  irrevocably  decided  to  trust  them,  and 
to  give  them  back  their  national  liberties.  By 
overwhelming  British  majorities  a  charter  of 
liberty  for  Ireland  has  been  three  times  passed 
by  the  House  of  Commons.  A  new  era,  it  ap- 
pears, has  opened  in  the  history  of  the  two  na- 
tions. 

"IRELAND  GETS  LITTLE  MORE  THAN  A  PROMISE 
OF  HER  RIGHTS" 

"The  question  is  not  whether  the  British  democ- 
racy trusts  the  Irish,  but  whether  the  Irish  can 
trust  them.  It  is  false  that  the  British  democ- 
racy has  finally  and  irrevocably  decided  to  give 
the  Irish  their  national  liberties — as  yet  we  have 
got  nothing.  Even  the  paltry  and  meagre  Home 
Rule  Bill  can  be  revoked  at  any  moment ;  and  in 
any  case  an  amending  bill  will  be  brought  for- 
ward before  the  law  is  put  into  execution.  More- 
over, by  this  Home  Rule  Bill  Ireland  does  not 
come  into  her  national  liberties;  she  gets  little 
more  than  a  promise  of  the  rights  that  any  camp 
municipality  enjoys  in  this  country. 

"The  Home  Rule  Bill  was  not  passed  by  an 
overwhelming  British  majority;  if  it  depended 
[244] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

solely  on  the  British  vote,  it  would  not  have 
passed;  it  was  the  Irish  vote  that  pulled  it 
through. 

"Mr.  Redmond  further  states : 

During  the  long  discussion  of  the  Irish  problem  in 
Parliament  and  on  the  platform  we  promised  the  Brit- 
ish people  that  the  concession  of  liberty  would  have 
the  same  effect  in  Ireland  as  in  every  other  part  of 
the  empire,  and  notably  in  recent  years  in  South 
Africa,  that  disaffection  would  give  way  to  friendship 
and  good  will,  and  that  Ireland  would  become  a 
strength,  instead  of  a  weakness,  to  the  empire.  The 
democracy  of  Great  Britain  listened  to  our  appeal, 
and  have  kept  faith  with  Ireland.  It  is  now  a  duty 
of  honor  for  Ireland  to  keep  faith  with  them. 

"Why  should  Mr.  Redmond  make  these  prom- 
ises ?  Who  authorized  him  to  do  so  ?  When  did 
British  democracy  keep  faith  with  Ireland?  and 
when  and  where  did  Ireland  promise  them  any- 
thing ?  One  would  think  by  the  manner  in  which 
Mr.  Redmond  puts  it,  that  Ireland  had  no  right 
to  demand  Home  Rule,  that  this  was  a  gratuitous 
gift  on  the  part  of  the  British  Empire. 

"The  Home  Rule  Bill  does  not  grant  to  Ireland 
the  liberties  enjoyed  by  other  parts  of  the  empire, 
such  as  Canada,  Australia,  South  Africa,  etc. 

"Mr.  Redmond  makes  special  reference  to 
[245] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

South  Africa,  where,  according  to  him,  disaffec- 
tion gave  way  to  friendship  and  good  will. 

"Mr.  Redmond's  assertions  have  been  disproved 
by  facts.  At  the  present  moment  a  great  part 
of  Transvaal  and  of  the  Orange  State  is  up  in 
arms  against  the  British  Empire.  General  De- 
larey,  who  opposed  the  war  against  Germany, 
was  assassinated  in  Pretoria.  By  whom?  Gen- 
eral Delarey  was  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  Boer 
War  and  was  very  popular  all  over  South  Africa. 

"Mr.  Redmond  said  also : 

A  test  to  search  men's  souls  has  arisen.  The  em- 
pire is  engaged  in  the  most  serious  war  in  history. 
It  is  a  just  war,  provoked  by  the  intolerable  military 
despotism  of  Germany.  It  is  a  war  for  the  defence 
of  the  sacred  rights  and  liberties  of  small  nations,  and 
the  respect  and  enlargement  of  the  great  principle  of 
nationality.  Involved  in  it  is  the  fate  of  France,  our 
kindred  country,  the  chief  nation  of  that  powerful 
Celtic  race  to  which  we  belong;  the  fate  of  Belgium, 
to  whom  we  are  attached  by  the  same  great  ties  of 
race,  and  by  the  common  desire  of  a  small  nation  to 
assert  its  freedom ;  and  the  fate  of  Poland,  whose  suf- 
ferings and  whose  struggle  bear  so  marked  a  resem- 
blance to  our  own. 

It  is  a  war  for  high  ideals  of  human  government 
and  international  relations,  and  Ireland  would  be  false 
to  her  history,  and  to  every  consideration  of  honor, 
[246] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

good  faith,  and  self-interest,  did  she  not  willingly  bear 
her  share  in  its  burdens  and  its  sacrifices.  We  have, 
even  when  no  ties  of  sympathy  bound  our  country  to 
Great  Britain,  always  given  our  quota,  and  more  than 
our  quota,  to  the  firing-line,  and  we  shall  do  so  now. 

Words,  words.  I  f  the  empire  is  at  war  it  should 
fight  its  own  battles.  Mr.  Redmond  says  the 
war  is  just,  but  the  Irish  people  do  not  know,  nor 
have  they  sufficient  elements  at  their  disposal  to 
pronounce  judgment  on  the  justice  or  causes  of 
the  war.  We  feel  for  France  and  for  Belgium 
and  hope  that  Poland  may  obtain  her  own.  One 
thing  we  know,  that  the  Poles,  if  they  cannot  ob- 
tain freedom,  would  prefer  to  be  under  Austria 
than  under  Russia,  the  ally  of  England. 

"Ireland  would  be  false  indeed  to  her  history, 
and  to  every  consideration  of  honor,  good  faith 
and  self-interest  if  she  sent  her  children  to  die  on 
foreign  battlefields  fighting  the  battles  of  the 
stranger  in  a  war  that  she  has  neither  provoked 
nor  knows  anything  about.  Those  who  have 
brought  on  and  declared  this  war  should  fight  it 
out.  Whenever  Ireland  has  made  war,  her  sons 
have  been  men  enough  to  do  the  fighting ;  they  did 
not  remain  at  home  and  ask  the  stranger  to  do  it 
for  them. 

[247] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Ireland  is  not  alone  in  this  way  of  thinking. 
The  Argentine  Republic,  Brazil,  Chile  and  all  the 
Latin-American  Republics,  the  United  States, 
Sweden,  Norway,  Denmark,  Holland,  Switzer- 
land, Italy,  Spain,  Greece,  etc.,  have  decided  to 
take  no  sides  in  this  war.  Why  does  not  Mr. 
Redmond  appeal  to  the  sympathy  of  those  strong 
nations,  instead  of  seeking  to  deprive  Ireland  of 
the  few  children  that  remain  to  comfort  and  help 
her  in  her  hour  of  need? 

"The  Swiss  Government  was  advised  by  one  of 
the  belligerent  powers  to  protest  against  Germany 
for  violating  Belgian  neutrality.  The  answer 
was  swift  and  curt :  "Switzerland  has  enough  to 
do  to  defend  her  own  neutrality." 

"NO    IRISHMAN    SHOULD    EVER    ENLIST    IN    ENG- 
LAND'S SERVICE" 

"Mr.  Redmond  says  that  the  Irish  fought  be- 
fore for  Great  Britain.  The  most  of  those  who  did 
so  had  enlisted  in  the  British  army  before  war, 
and  therefore  were  forcibly  obliged  to  go,  but  in 
any  case  if  some  Irish  were  fooled  once  it  does 
not  follow  that  they  should  always  be  fooled.  No 
Irishman  should  ever  enlist  in  the  British  army 
in  time  of  peace  or  war;  that  is  our  principle,  and 
[248] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

it  is  the  principle  of  every  true  Irishman  from 
O'Neill  to  Parnell. 

"Mr.  Redmond  further  says : 

We  have  a  right,  however,  to  claim  that  Irish  re- 
cruits for  the  Expeditionary  Force  should  be  kept  to- 
gether as  a  unit,  officered  as  far  as  possible  by  Irish- 
men, composed,  if  possible,  of  county  battalions,  to 
form,  in  fact,  an  "Irish  Brigade,"  so  that  Ireland  may 
gain  national  credit  for  their  deeds,  and  feel,  like 
other  communities  of  the  empire,  that  she,  too,  has 
contributed  an  army  bearing  her  name  in  this  his- 
toric struggle. 

Simultaneously  with  the  formation  of  this  Irish 
Brigade,  for  service  abroad,  our  volunteers  must  be 
put  in  a  state  of  efficiency  as  speedily  as  practicable, 
for  the  defence  of  the  country.  In  this  way,  by  the 
time  the  war  ends,  Ireland  will  possess  an  army  of 
which  she  may  be  proud.  I  feel  certain  that  the 
young  men  of  our  country  will  respond  to  this  appeal 
with  the  gallantry  of  their  race. 

The  British,  or,  if  Mr.  Redmond  wishes,  the 
Imperial  Government,  has  not  consented  to  grant 
this  right.  This  confirms  what  we  say,  that  the 
Irish  should  not  enlist  for  service  in  this  war. 


"If  the  youth  of  Ireland  pay  heed  to  Mr.  Red- 
mond, acting  as  recruiting  sergeant  for  the  Brit- 
[249] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

ish  Government,  then  at  the  end  of  the  war  Ire- 
land will  have  lost  the  flower  of  her  children,  who 
will  have  died  not  for  their  mother,  but  for  the 
stranger  in  a  foreign  land.  This  is  not  guess- 
work. When  war  was  declared,  600  Irishmen 
of  the  Dublin  Fusiliers  were  sent  to  the  front. 
One  month  after  a  war-worn  band  of  42  re- 
turned to  Dublin.  Those  42  were  the  remnant 
of  the  600  Irish  Fusiliers.  The  majority  died  on 
the  battlefield,  or  remained  in  the  hospitals,  in- 
valids for  life.  Let  Irishmen  learn  and  beware 
of  enlisting. 

"Mr.  Redmond  said  in  conclusion: 
I  would  appeal  to  our  countrymen  of  a  different 
creed  and  of  opposite  political  opinion,  to  accept  the 
friendship  we  have  so  consistently  offered  them ;  to  al- 
low this  great  war,  as  to  which  their  opinions  and  ours 
are  the  same,  and  our  action  will  also  be  the  same,  to 
swallow  up  all  the  small  issues  in  the  domestic  gov- 
ernment of  Ireland  which  now  divide  us;  that  as  our 
soldiers  are  going  to  fight,  to  shed  their  blood,  and 
to  die  at  each  other's  side,  in  the  same  army,  against 
the  same  enemy,  and  for  the  same  high  purpose,  their 
union  in  the  field  may  lead  to  a  union  in  their  home, 
and  that  their  blood  may  be  the  seal  that  will  bring 
all  Ireland  together  in  one  nation,  and  in  liberties  equal 
and  common  to  all. 

[250] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

"Ireland  needs  all  her  sons  of  every  creed  and 
of  every  political  opinion.  And  we  say  to  all: 
Do  not  fight  other  people's  wars ;  remain  at  home 
and  build  up  a  strong  and  free  Ireland.  There 
is  work  for  all  in  that  dear  Ireland  whose  honor 
has  been  handed  down  untarnished  through  the 
ages  into  the  hands  of  the  present  generation. 

"We  understand  that  Mr.  Redmond  is  consid- 
ered a  great  orator.  In  this  manifesto  he  lacks 
many  of  the  great  qualities  of  a  thinker.  He  is 
vague  and  colorless.  His  aim  is  that  Irishmen 
should  go  to  Europe  to  fight  for  England,  but  he 
does  not  say  this  openly;  he  speaks  about  our 
sympathy  for  France,  Belgium  and  Poland  and 
gives  no  fundamental  reason  for  appealing  to  the 
Irish  people  to  fight  the  stranger's  battles.  He 
does  not  explain  why,  not  counting  the  colonies, 
eight  million  Englishmen  of  an  age  and  capacity 
to  bear  arms  remain  at  home  without  thinking 
of  going  to  fight  for  their  country. 

"SHALL  IRELAND  DIE  A  DEATH  OF  INFAMY  AND 

DEGRADATION  ?" 

"The  reading  of  this  manifesto  was  not  merely 
a  painful  surprise,  but  we  felt  in  our  heart  a 
sense  of  loss,  of  betrayal.    It  struck  us  forcibly 
[251] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

that  neither  Owen  Roe  O'Neill,  O'Donnell, 
Theobald  Wolfe  Tone,  Robert  Emmet,  nor  any 
of  those  great  men  who  lived  or  died  for  Ireland 
would  ever  have  signed  such  a  document.  If 
Ireland  cannot  hold  her  own  (and  she  can)  she 
should  die  with  honor,  as  gallant  nations  die. 
Ireland  should  not  die  a  death  of  infamy  and 
degradation. 

"Was  it  for  this  that  during  centuries  Ireland 
suffered  and  labored?  Was  it  for  this  our 
women  and  children  died  of  starvation,  or  were 
brutally  murdered  or  had  to  flee  to  distant  lands  ? 
Was  it  for  this  that  Irishmen  fought  in  Ireland 
and  in  every  battlefield  in  Europe? 

"If  this  be  the  result,  then  Ireland's  martyrdom, 
Ireland's  sufferings,  Ireland's  aspirations,  have 
been  in  vain;  it  would  have  been  better  for  her 
if,  at  the  beginning,  she  had  prostrated  herself 
on  the  ground  and  meekly  allowed  herself  to  be 
trampled  on  by  the  Sassenach.  But,  thank  God, 
the  result  is  not  this.  Irishmen  and  Irishwomen 
will  rise  in  their  anger  and  reject  this  solution. 
Redmond's  day  is  done;  he  got  the  chance  of 
being  a  great  man,  but  has  failed." 

From  other  sections  of  South  America,  where 
Irish  residents  are  heard  from,  the  repudiation  of 
[252] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Redmond's  leadership  continues.  In  Santiago, 
the  capital  of  Chile,  the  Irish  society  gathered 
near  the  famous  equestrian  statute  of  O'Higgins 
and  denounced  the  plan  for  the  betrayal  of  the 
cause  of  Irish  freedom.  There  are  few  greater 
names  in  South  American  history  than  O'Hig- 
gins, both  father  and  son. 

The  first  O'Higgins  was  born  in  County 
Meath,  Ireland,  in  1720,  died  in  Lima,  Peru,  in 
1810.  He  was  first  a  peddler  in  Argentina.  Then 
he  built  roads  and  became  an  engineer.  For 
twelve  years  he  was  Governor  of  Chile  and  for 
some  years  Viceroy  of  Peru.  His  son,  Bernard 
O'Higgins,  died  at  Lima,  Peru,  in  1842.  He  led 
a  successful  revolution  against  Spain  and  was 
made  President  of  Chile.  A  revolution  over- 
threw his  Government  in  1823  and  he  was  driven 
into  exile  in  Peru.  His  ashes  were  brought  back 
with  great  honors  by  the  Chilean  Government  and 
his  statue  is  the  most  imposing  one  in  Santiago. 
His  son,  Demetris,  died  in  1869,  and  was  a  con- 
tributor to  the  young  Ireland  movement  of  1848. 
Bernard  O'Higgins  is  conceded  to  have  been  the 
ablest  Chilean  administrator. 

The  most  important  line  of  steamers  to  the 
west  coast  are  the  Grace  ships,  the  head  of  the 
[253] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

firm  of  brothers  being  the  late  Mayor  of 
New  York,  William  R.  Grace,  of  Cork,  County 
Cork,  Ireland.  He  lived  in  Peru  in  his  early  days 
and  contributed  liberally  to  Irish  famine  and 
national  funds.  Mr.  Grace  found  institutes  in 
America  and  in  Peru  for  the  free  business  train- 
ing of  poor  boys  and  girls. 

Irish  colonists,  citizens  and  societies  have  met 
in  Cuba,  Mexico,  Porto  Rico,  and  in  the  cities  of 
Rio  Janeiro,  Bahia,  Sao  Paulo,  and  Callao,  and 
condemned  the  vilification  and  misrepresentation 
of  the  German  people  by  England.  The  fathers 
of  many  of  these  men  were  impressed  by  the 
English  merchantmen  and  intended  by  the  con- 
querors to  practically  make  slaves  of  them  in  the 
West  Indies  by  hypothecating  the  proceeds  of 
their  wretched  labor  after  the  dread  famine  of 
1847,  when  the  starving  people  welcomed  the  first 
ship,  for  no  matter  where,  so  long  as  it  departed 
from  stricken  Ireland.  It  was  in  one  of  those 
fateful  years  that  the  cruel  London  Times,  now 
appealing  for  Irish  army  recruits,  commenting  on 
the  exodus  from  Ireland,  crowding  into  the  holds 
of  sailing  ships  for  the  terrible  voyage  across  the 
seas,  gloatingly  said:  "The  Celt  is  gone — gone 
with  a  vengeance.  The  Celt  will  soon  be  as  rare 
[254] 


MICHAEL  DAV1TT 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

on  the  banks  of  the  Shannon  as  the  Red  Indian 
on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson." 

The  exiles,  scattered  to  the  four  corners  of  the 
earth,  more  numerous  and  powerful  than  the  rem- 
nants of  Erin's  isle,  form  the  terrible  Nemesis 
dogging  the  trail  of  John  Bull,  exposing  his 
hypocrisy  and  preventing  him  from  having  the 
ear  of  the  world. 


[255] 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

IRISH  FEELING  FAVORS  GERMANY 

THE  true  facts  as  to  the  state  of  Ireland  are  grad- 
ually being  seen  by  observing  Americans.  And 
the  feelings  of  those  in  America,  who  have  ever 
really  served  the  cause  of  Ireland,  are  manifestly 
for  Germany  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States. 

Irish- Americans  admire  the  Germans  not  alone 
because  of  our  inveterate  dislike  of  England,  as 
is  charged,  but  because  we  have  learned  to  love 
the  Germans  as  the  best  friends  of  Irish  freedom 
in  America.  Through  their  societies,  press,  sing- 
ing clubs  and  athletic  bodies,  they  have  mani- 
fested the  deepest  sympathies  for  our  cause. 
Without  their  aid  we  could  not  have  defeated  the 
dangerous  Anglo-American  treaties  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  as  submitted  by  that  arch-enemy  of 
Irish  nationality,  Joseph  Choate,  former  ambas- 
sador to  England. 

Of  German  blood  in  this  country  there  are 
some  16,000,000,  and  nearly  as  many  of  Irish  ex- 
traction— four  times  as  great  as  all  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Ireland. 

[256] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

The  war  news  is  unreliable  because  most  all 
of  it  is  dated  from  hostile  sources — London, 
Paris  and  St.  Petersburg.  A  kindly  people,  of 
high  ideals,  who  have  kept  the  peace  of  the  world 
for  forty  years,  when  all  other  nations  went  to 
war,  including  our  country,  are  set  down  in  the 
news  bureaus  of  the  world  as  vile  barbarians, 
cruel  vandals,  and  destroyers  of  all  things  sacred 
in  religion  and  art.  Not  all  Americans  are  so 
credulous,  for  gradually  thought  is  working  itself 
clear  in  spite  of  misrepresentations  as  to  Ger- 
many. 

The  present  writer  visited  Ireland  just  before 
and  for  some  time  after  the  war.  All  the  press 
dispatches  in  the  Irish  papers  emanate  from  Lon- 
don. Much  of  the  printed  matter  is  "fake  stuff," 
designed  to  gain  recruits  in  the  British  army  from 
the  unwilling  Irish.  In  the  Hotel  Gresham,  Dub- 
lin, he  chanced  to  see  some  notes  of  "German 
atrocities,"  a  description  of  the  "shooting  of  Sis- 
ters of  Mercy  by  the  German  troops,  the  wilful 
killing  of  priests  and  sacrilege  of  sacred  altars." 
This  was  printed  in  various  Irish  papers  by  a 
scoundrel  who  made  it  up  in  the  Dublin  hotel. 

The  writer  had  long  been  a  strong  supporter 
of  Redmond,  since  the  death  of  Parnell  in  1895, 
[257] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

and  had  given  him  the  support  of  his  papers,  but 
his  eyes  were  quickly  opened  in  Ireland.  Red- 
mond's machine  is  like  any  other  political  machine 
— in  search  of  power  and  offices.  The  present 
government  has  largely  contributed  to  that  end. 
The  Irish  Party  has  lost  its  youth  and  vitality 
largely,  and  its  usefulness  was  ended  with  the 
Land  Act,  which  has  worked  well  for  Ireland.  The 
social  atmosphere  of  London  is  bad  for  good- 
intentioned  patriots  who  fall  for  the  social  and 
commercial  set  who  entertain  and  patronize  them. 

The  time  is  ripe  in  Ireland  for  an  uprising 
against  the  weak,  compromising  West  British 
leaders  who  accepted  a  measure  which  will  give 
them  a  few  hundred  local  offices,  if  it  ever  does 
become  a  law,  and  who  refuse  to  continue  the 
struggle  for  liberty  and  nationhood.  But  Red- 
mond is  not  another  Robert  Emmet  or  a  Wolfe 
Tone.  In  spite  of  leaders,  party,  press  and  Brit- 
ish power  and  gold,  the  recruiting  in  Ireland  is  a 
failure  up  to  date. 

We  all  know  in  this  country  that  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Rheims  was  not  destroyed,  and  the  Amer- 
ican press  correspondents  have  told  us  the  true 
story  of  Louvain.  Friends  of  Redmond  on  this 
side  are  shocked  at  the  shamelessness  of  his  re- 
[258] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

cruiting  speeches.  The  present  writer  submits 
the  following  stenographic  report  of  a  recent  re- 
cruiting speech  by  Redmond,  made  in  his  home 
towa  of  Waterford,  appealing  to  the  lads  from 
the  farms  to  go  over  and  kill  the  Germans  for 
England.  He  said : 

"You  must  emulate  the  glory  of  the  Volunteers 
of  1778  and  1782  and  safeguard  the  Irish  nation 
against  the  incoming  Teutonic  barbarian  hordes. 
The  work  of  recruiting  has  lagged  and  I  am  here 
to  say  that  you  are  wanting  in  spirit.  I  have 
secured  in  Parnell  Square  suitable  buildings 
where  you  vigorous  young  men  will  repair,  and 
where  you  will  be  provided  with  arms  and  drill- 
ing instructors.  I  have  started  a  new  paper  to 
oppose  the  Irish  National  Volunteer.  I  am  put- 
ting in  your  hands  to  use  against  the  Germans, 
the  latest  pattern  rifles.  I  selected  these  rifles 
myself  as  the  best  suited  for  you  after  consult- 
ing the  board  of  military  experts.  You  will  have 
the  best  weapons  in  the  world.  I  have  ordered 
the  Norris  tubes  to  put  inside  your  rifles.  I  have 
just  received  another  $30,000  from  friends.  The 
liberty  of  every  Irishman  is  in  peril  if  the  Ger- 
mans win  the  war.  Have  you  become  a  degen- 
erate race,  funking  in  this  war,  refusing  to  en- 
[259] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

list,  showing  the  white  feather,  proving  your- 
selves cowards,  for  the  first  time  in  your  history 
while  the  enemies  of  our  religion  are  destroying 
the  sacred  altars,  cathedrals  and  priests  of  our 
faith?  Our  heroic  defenders  of  Ireland  are  led 
by  an  Irishman  (Lord  Kitchener),  aye,  bravely 
indeed  have  died  on  the  battlefields  of  1914  the 
boys  from  Tipper  ary,  Water  ford,  Cork,  Ros- 
common,  Dublin  and  Wexford.  I  regret  to  see 
that  the  emigration  of  our  young  people  again, 
and  I  say  it  mournfully,  has  set  in  to  America. 
This  is  no  time  for  deserters.  To  fight  the  Ger- 
man Huns  and  vandals,  destroyers  of  our  sacred 
churches,  most  effectively,  we  shall  organize 
Irish  brigades,  officered  by  Irishmen." 

If,  as  my  correspondent  writes,  a  thrill  of  hor- 
ror passed  through  the  breasts  of  many  a  reader 
of  Irish  newspapers,  how  shocking  to  those  of  us 
in  America  who  have  followed  Redmond  and 
know  the  good  qualities  of  our  German  neighbors. 
There  is  a  deep  undercurrent  of  opposition  among 
many  young  men,  like  the  spirit  of  resentment 
which  existed  in  Ireland  during  the  Boer  war. 
The  censored  press  will  not  be  able  to  keep  from 
Ireland  the  news  of  the  rebellion  in  the  Transvaal, 
the  Orange  Free  State  and  Cape  Colony,  or  the 
[260! 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

mutinies  of  Egypt  or  India  and  the  failure  to 
secure  Irish  troops  from  Canada  and  Australia. 

Few  Irishmen  dare  speak  out  from  their  hearts 
because  of  the  fear  of  being  imprisoned.  But 
there  are  men  in  the  Emerald  Isle  who  dare  to 
speak  out  and  warn  their  countrymen  against 
race  suicide  by  recruiting  and  who  refuse  to  be- 
lieve the  lies  about  Germany.  They  know  that 
a  war  of  aggression,  on  the  part  of  denuded  Ire- 
land, for  England,  against  Germany,  has  no  war- 
rant in  their  sad  history,  no  justification  in  morals 
or  practical  benefits.  They  feel  sorry  for  poor, 
stricken  Belgium,  but  for  every  claimed  atrocity 
in  Belgium  they  can  offer  a  thousand  proven 
parallels.  They  have  but  to  glance  across  their 
country  and  see  the  ruins  of  a  thousand  shrines, 
wrecked  cathedrals,  priests  hunted  down  like 
wolves.  Redmond's  appeal  for  troops  in  Wex- 
ford,  Limerick  and  Drogheda,  for  England, 
might  have  well  awakened  the  tombs  of  those 
towns  where  lay  the  bones  of  many  women  and 
children  massacred  by  the  English  conquerors. 
For  the  broken  treaty  of  any  country  we  offer  the 
treaty  of  Limerick  and  the  memory  of  Patrick 
Sarsfield.  In  spite  of  all  suppression,  the  real 
voice  of  the  patriots  of  Ireland  has  found  expres- 
[261] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

sion  in  the  Dublin  Leader,  Irish  National  Volun- 
teer, Roscommon  Herald,  The  Kerryman,  Wick- 
low  People,  Meath  Chronicle,  Galway  Pilot,  Mayo 
News,  Leitrim  Observer,  Sligo  Champion,  and 
Leinster  Leader. 

Now  that  the  Roman  Catholic  bishops  of  Ger- 
many and  others  have  exposed  the  efforts  of  the 
English  to  make  the  Irish  hate  the  Germans,  over 
false  stories  of  atrocities  in  Belgium,  and  have 
been  able  by  letter  to  inform  the  prelates  of  Ire- 
land on  the  subject,  a  reaction  has  set  in  against 
Redmond  as  the  principal  author  of  these  stories, 
and  Cardinal  Logue,  primate  of  all  Ireland,  and 
Bishop  O'Donnell  of  Raphoe,  have  greatly  modi- 
fied opinion  on  the  alleged  atrocities,  and  have 
stated  they  distrusted  England  in  the  promises  of 
Home  Rule.  The  bill  as  it  stands  is  a  feeble 
measure  which  would  be  laughed  out  of  existence 
if  offered  any  State  in  this  country.  Our  terri- 
tory of  Alaska  will  be  more  free  than  Ireland 
under  its  purely  local  legislature. 

POWER  OF  PUBLIC  OPINION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Students  of  Irish  social  phenomena  have  esti- 
mated that  the  sons  and  daughters  of  little  Ire- 
land have  sent  home,  across  the  seas,  anywhere 
[262] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

from  $125,000,000  to  $200,000,000  in  the  past 
seventy  years.  Ireland  is  the  only  country  in 
the  world  denuded  of  its  population.  She  had 
9,000,000  in  1844  and  only  4,000,000  now.  But 
her  emigrants  mother  large  families.  There  are 
of  Irish  blood  13,000,000  in  the  United  States, 
1,500,000  in  Canada,  1,200,000  in  Australia, 
2,000,000  in  England,  and  many  in  Scotland, 
West  Indies,  South  America  and  India.  The 
island,  poor,  with  few  industries  and  little  land  for 
the  people,  received  help  from  the  exiles  wherever 
settled.  There  is  not  an  Irish  family  in  America 
but  can  remember  the  times  when  the  earnings 
on  this  side  were  shared  with  the  less  fortunate 
on  the  other  side.  In  some  parts  of  Ireland  there 
is  only  one  male  left  of  each  family.  To  this  day 
the  Christmas  gifts  and  money  going  to  Ireland 
is  the  wonder  of  the  post-offices  of  the  world. 
One  who  has  been  on  a  ship  near  Christmas  never 
forgets  the  sight  of  the  Irish  mail. 

The  Dublin  Freeman  of  December  26,  1914, 
writing  of  the  Christmas  mail  from  America, 
stated:  "Yesterday  there  was  dealt  with  the 
biggest  American  mail  that  has  ever  had  to  be 
handled  by  the  post-office.  In  the  mail  were  5,700 
American  money  orders  at  an  average  value  of 
[263] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

$10  each.  The  record  was  made  for  the  heavi- 
est parcel  mail  received  from  America." 

From  charity  to  gifts  for  Ireland,  a  nation, 
has  been  an  easy  step.  Millions  have  gone  over  for 
famine  funds,  evicted  tenants,  schools,  churches, 
asylums,  Land  League,  United  Irish  League,  rev- 
olutionary movements,  secret  societies,  monu- 
ments, patriotic  and  volunteer  funds. 

One  newspaper  in  New  York,  the  Irish  World, 
has  collected  upward  of  $1,000,000  for  Irish  na- 
tional movements  in  the  past  forty  years.  Until 
recently  the  funds  to  support  the  Parliamentary 
Party  of  '85  in  the  British  House  of  Commons 
came  from  outside  of  Ireland. 

Steadily  the  sentiment  against  Redmond's  re- 
cruiting programme  is  mounting  in  America.  His 
use  of  the  last  $30,000  sent  him  from  Amer- 
ica ( the  donors  never  dreaming  their  money  was 
to  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  a  recruiting  organi- 
zation) has  disgusted  all  the  real  Nationalists,  and 
the  day  has  passed  when  he  will  hope  to  get 
money  from  the  old  friends  of  the  cause  he  has 
weakened.  The  only  class  of  Irishmen  support- 
ing him,  aside  from  a  few,  are  those  who  are 
not  informed,  who  think  Home  Rule  is  a  real- 
ity, or  others  who  are  Anglo-American  Tories  at 
[264] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

heart,  and  some  well-meaning  clergymen,  who 
cannot  look  away  from  Belgium  to  see  the  good 
that  might  come  to  Ireland  with  the  vanishing 
power  of  England. 

The  largest  and  wealthiest  Irish  society  in 
America  is  the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  with 
several  hundred  thousand  members.  This  so- 
ciety owns  a  newspaper  in  Washington,  The  Hi- 
bernian, which  has  a  larger  circulation  in  Amer- 
ica than  the  eight  leading  papers  in  Ireland. 
That  journal,  as  an  official  organ,  in  its  annual 
report,  quotes  from  the  official  letter  of  Joseph 
McLaughlin  of  Philadelphia,  who  is  national 
president  of  the  Order.  President  McLaughlin 
says: 

'The  status  of  the  Volunteer  movement  in  Ire- 
land has  aroused  some  curiosity,  and  I  have  re- 
ceived many  inquiries  regarding  the  fund  col- 
lected by  our  Order  for  the  arming  of  this  de- 
fensive force.  I  assure  those  who  contributed 
that  all  moneys  will  be  devoted  to  the  purpose 
originally  announced.  The  present  attitude  of 
Mr.  Redmond  and  some  of  his  colleagues  is  an 
innovation  in  the  long  struggle  for  Irish  national- 
ity for  which  I  was  not  prepared — an  innovation, 
too,  which  I  cannot  endorse.  I  do  not  believe 
[265] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

that  the  flower  of  Ireland's  youth  should  be  sac- 
rificed in  England's  fight  for  European  suprem- 
acy. England's  treatment  of  Ireland  forbids  any 
such  enthusiastic  co-operation  on  the  part  of  Ire- 
land's sons.  The  spectacle  of  once-trusted  lead- 
ers acting  as  recruiting  sergeants  for  the  British 
army  cannot  be  viewed  with  any  friendliness 
whatever  by  the  Hibernians  of  America,  and 
means  will,  therefore,  be  taken  to  prevent  these 
misguided  leaders  from  securing  possession  of 
the  funds  contributed  by  our  Order.  These  funds 
must  not  be  used  for  any  movement  not  designed 
to  strengthen  Ireland — and  Ireland  alone." 

Mr.  Redmond's  official  organization  in  this 
country  is  the  United  Irish  League,  which,  with 
Home  Rule  as  its  platform,  was  popular  and  pros- 
perous. The  writer  was  a  member  of  it,  but  re- 
signed on  learning,  when  in  Ireland,  that  Mr. 
Redmond  was  getting  ready  to  use  its  powerful 
machinery  and  money  in  the  recruiting  work  for 
the  British  army.  The  president  of  the  United 
Irish  League  is  Michael  J.  Ryan  of  Philadelphia, 
corporation  counsel  of  the  city,  a  worthy  and  able 
man,  a  fine  lawyer,  who  made  a  phenomenal  run 
for  Governor  of  Pennsylvania.  The  League  has 
done  good  work  for  Ireland,  and  Mr.  Ryan  is 
[266] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

placed  in  a  hard  position.  He  has  confined  his 
criticism  to  the  history  of  Germany  and  England. 
In  an  eloquent  speech,  delivered  in  the  Academy 
of  Music,  Philadelphia,  Mr.  Ryan  defended  Ger- 
many, attacked  England,  and  showed  how  the 
German  nation  was  being  slandered  and  villified. 
No  public  meetings  of  the  United  Irish  League 
have  been  held  or  money  subscribed  and  paid 
since  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  Mr.  Redmond 
appears  not  to  have  consulted  his  supporters  in 
America  or  shown  compunction  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  League.  He  must  have  known  that  no 
considerable  body  of  Irish-Americans  could  con- 
tinue an  organization  which  was  used  for  war 
purposes  against  the  Germans  and  still  hope  to 
live  on  terms  of  amity  with  Germans  as  neigh- 
bors. He  should  have  known  that  Germany  is  a 
long-time  loyal  friend  of  the  United  States,  while 
England  is  the  hereditary  foe  of  this  country,  as 
every  school  boy  is  taught  by  the  wars  of  1776 
and  1812,  her  interference  in  the  Civil  War  in 
1861,  and  the  nearness  to  war  with  her  in  1893 
over  Venezuela,  when  President  Cleveland  de- 
nounced her.  Americans,  who  have  studied  his- 
tory, know  that  England  took  advantage  of  the 
Civil  War  to  eliminate  our  merchant  marine,  and 
[267] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

America  is  suffering  greatly  to-day  for  want  of 
American-made  ships  or  ships  flying  the  Ameri- 
can flag. 

THE   IRISH-AMERICAN  PRESS 

All  of  the  leading  and  influential  papers  in 
America  are  now  against  Redmond.  The  Irish 
World  of  New  York,  the  oldest  journal  of  its 
kind  in  the  world,  which  reaches  every  town,  is 
conducting  a  brilliant  campaign  against  his  pol- 
icy. As  the  Irish  World  has  been  his  most  pow- 
erful supporter,  the  change  is  significant.  It  has 
suspended  collecting  funds  for  Ireland  after  forty 
years  of  marvellous  success. 

A  powerful  and  ably  edited  journal  is  the  Gaelic- 
American  of  New  York.  Those  of  us  who  have 
been  foolish  enough  to  fancy  that  Redmond 
might  live  to  be  another  Emmet,  are  forced  to 
speak  reverently  now  of  a  misunderstood  veteran, 
who  has  suffered  much  criticism  and  misrepre- 
sentation by  the  majority  of  his  countrymen. 

Redmond  has  acted  exactly  as  the  discerning 
editor  of  the  Gaelic-American  said  he  would,  in 
the  event  of  a  crisis,  and  as  we  said  he  wouldn't. 

T.  P.  O'Connor,  M.P.,  in  his  "History  of  Par- 
nell,"  gives  the  credit  for  founding  the  Irish 
[268] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

national  movement  in  America  to  the  editor  of 
the  Gaelic-American.  This  journal  has  raised  a 
fund  of  some  $31,000  in  a  few  weeks,  which  you 
may  be  sure  Redmond  will  not  secure. 

The  Irish  Standard  of  Minneapolis,  the  Leader 
of  San  Francisco,  Union  and  Times  of  Buffalo, 
Hibernian  of  Boston,  Chronicle  of  Albany,  Inde- 
pendent of  Butte,  Light  of  Scranton,  Sun  of 
Syracuse,  which  are  undoubtedly  the  influential 
newspapers  in  their  localities,  making  a  specialty 
of  Irish  news,  are  solidly  opposed  to  Redmond's 
leading  the  peasants  of  Ireland  to  slaughter  fields. 

The  societies  in  America  which  contributed 
$400,000  to  preserve  the  Irish  language  have 
unanimously  condemned  John  Redmond.  And  it 
may  be  remarked  here  that  the  only  college  pro- 
fessors in  the  world,  outside  of  Ireland  and  Amer- 
ica, who  have  studied  the  ancient  Irish  tongue, 
are  professors  at  Bonn  and  Heidelburg,  in  Ger- 
many. The  culture  of  Germany  has  long  em- 
braced the  Irish  language  and  helped  to  save  it 
from  the  fate  of  the  dead  languages.  One  of 
our  societies,  not  long  since,  sent  $50,000  to 
Washington  to  establish  the  Gaelic  chair  in  the 
National  University.  That  society  repudiated  the 
recruiting  of  the  Irish  against  Germany.  The 
[269] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

united  Irish  societies  of  New  York,  Chicago,  and 
many  other  cities  have  held  vast  meetings,  where 
the  cheers  of  an  aroused  people  have  sounded  like 
the  rattle  of  musketry,  and  the  reverberations  of 
these  gatherings  have  reached  even  press- 
censored  Ireland. 

Irish  observers,  scattered  over  the  globe,  have 
long  noticed  that  the  advance  of  German  com- 
merce and  the  superior  efficiency  and  thorough- 
ness of  the  Germans  has  clearly  roused  the  hate 
and  jealousy  of  Britain,  whose  title  of  mistress  of 
the  seas  is  threatened. 


[270] 


CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

"Ireland  a  nation — free  and  independent — is  the  hope  and 
the  dream  of  her  children  scattered  over  the  globe." 


CHAPTER  XXV 

A  WORD  FOR  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 

ASIDE  from  the  evidently  false  despatches  dated 
Petrograd  and  London,  we  are  unable  to  secure 
authentic  information  as  to  the  state  of  the  dual 
monarchy.  The  leading  Catholic  review  in  the 
United  States,  America,  in  its  issue  of  January 
9,  1915,  says: 

VITALITY  OF  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 

Few  Americans,  from  the  perusal  of  their  daily 
press,  can  reaize  the  great  vitality  which  has  been  dis- 
played by  the  Dual  Monarchy  in  the  present  struggle. 

The  enormous  war  loan  raised  by  it  was  mainly  the 
voluntary  contribution  of  the  class  of  people  whose 
hard-earned  savings  were  the  result  of  personal  labor 
or  of  modest  business  and  agricultural  undertakings. 
Such  a  circumstance  demonstrates  the  strength  of  that 
national  spirit  which  had  long  been  obscured  by  the 
pettiness  of  party  politics.  It  likewise  proves  that  eco- 
nomically the  country  was  far  more  sound  than  even 
its  best  friends  had  believed.  The  Kolnische  Volks- 
zeitung  admits  that,  considering  the  great  difference 
in  commerce  and  industry  between  the  two  countries, 
Austria-Hungary  can  compare  favorably  in  her  gener- 
osity with  Germany  herself.  Unwillingness  to  make 
[271] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

signal  sacrifices  is  ascribed  only  to  the  great  capital- 
ists of  the  country,  whose  offerings  have,  in  propor- 
tion, fallen  far  short  of  those  made  by  the  middle 
classes.  It  has  become  evident,  from  the  successive 
revelations  brought  about  by  this  war,  that  little  was 
understood  by  the  world  at  large  of  the  real  spirit  of 
the  people,  their  love  of  country  and  their  loyalty, 
which  has  in  a  moment  of  national  peril  united  all  the 
various  races  into  one  strong  nation.  Remarkable, 
too,  have  been  the  financial  offerings  made  for  proper 
hospital  service  and  other  smiliar  needs  of  the  country 
by  the  Catholic  episcopate.  To  this  must  be  added 
the  fact  that  every  Austrian  Catholic  regards  the  war 
against  Russia  as  in  reality  a  crusade  carried  on  for 
the  Catholic  Church  to  preserve  Europe  from  Russian 
orthodoxy. 


American  opinion,  which  was  profoundly  ig- 
norant of  the  case  for  Austria-Hungary,  has 
been  greatly  modified  by  the  publication  of  Mr. 
Ludwig's  book  "Austria-Hungary  and  the  War." 
The  New  York  Times  has  just  given  a  long  no- 
tice to  this  very  informing  work,  in  which  the 
writer's  fairness  is  admitted.  Americans  now 
know  that  Servia  was  a  mere  outpost  of  Russia, 
and  that  the  Servian  propaganda,  which  would 
have  wrecked  the  dual  monarchy,  was  backed  by 
Russian  influence  and  Russian  money.  The 
[272] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

Hapsburg  Empire  is  in  no  danger  of  collapsing 
through  financial  disorder.  "The  people  can 
look  with  confidence  upon  the  economic  fitness  of 
the  country  to  conduct  this  war,"  says  Dr.  Ru- 
dolph Sieghart,  president  of  the  strongest  finan- 
cial institute  in  the  empire.  "Austria-Hungary's 
national  wealth  is  prepared  to  meet  all  and 
every  vicissitude  that  this  war  may  bring.  What 
was  weak  and  unstable  has  fallen  off  long  since 
on  account  of  the  repeated  crises  connected  with 
the  Balkan  wars.  What  was  left  is  the  power- 
ful stock,  and  this  stock  is  healthy  and  able  to 
weather  all  storms."  Moreover,  according  to 
Mr.  Ludwig's  first-hand  reports,  important  fac- 
tories are  running  night  and  day  turning  out  sup- 
plies for  the  troops,  while  many  other  factories 
which  manufacture  necessities  of  life  are  also 
busy.  Coal  mines  are  producing  from  70  to  80 
per  cent,  of  the  normal  output.  The  iron  indus- 
try maintains  about  75  per  cent,  of  its  normal 
business.  "War  credit  banks"  have  been  estab- 
lished to  keep  smaller  businesses  supplied  with 
credit,  and  public  works  in  Vienna  have  been 
continued  as  in  normal  times.  It  is  very  re- 
markable that  the  savings  banks  show  an  increase 
in  deposits  over  the  corresponding  period  last 
[273] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

year.  Schools  are  going  on  as  usual  in  Vienna 
and  the  theatres  are  kept  open.  The  writer  of 
"Austria-Hungary  and  the  War"  makes  no 
brag,  and  all  who  have  observed  Austrian- 
Hungarian  unity  and  power  of  resistance  must 
agree  with  his  modest  claim  that  the  venerable 
empire  he  represents  "has  stood  the  test  very 
well."  The  test  has  revealed  more  than  political 
unity  and  economic  stability:  it  has  shown  the 
extraordinary  regard  the  diverse  populations  of 
the  Hapsburg  Empire  have  for  the  administra- 
tion. This  is  natural,  as  we  can  perceive  when 
we  examine  the  condition  of  the  Poles,  for  in- 
stance, under  Austrian  Government.  Even  if  the 
present  Home  Rule  Bill  were  put  into  operation, 
if  it  conferred  ten  times  as  many  powers  on  the 
people  of  Ireland  than  it  confers  at  present,  the 
Irish  would  not  have  as  much  liberty  or  as  much 
power  for  development  as  Austrian  Poland  has 
enjoyed  for  generations. 


[274] 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

CONCLUSION 

THE  American  Eagle  is  screaming  with  wrath 
as  it  becomes  plain  that  England  dominates  the 
high  seas  and  directs  where  American  ships  shall 
pause  or  move.  The  British  Admiralty  controls 
the  waters  of  three-fourths  of  the  world.  The 
British  Government  ordains  what  shall  or  shall 
not  be  carried  of  American  products  in  American 
bottoms.  It  is  February,  1915 ;  the  war  has  lasted 
six  months.  The  irritation  in  this  country  against 
England  grows  apace.  Having  the  power  on  the 
ocean,  her  disregard  of  the  rights  of  neutrals  is 
keeping  the  United  States  poor. 

Marvellous  indeed  is  the  reaction  of  American 
public  sentiment  within  six  months.  Hands  are 
across  the  sea,  but  they  are  now  stretched  forth 
to  the  invincible  Germans  and  their  Austrian 
allies.  The  change  is  noted  among  different 
classes  and  even  in  high  circles.  Public  senti- 
ment in  America  is  steadily  drifting  and  the  drift 
is  altogether  against  England.  The  moving  pic- 
ture men  in  New  York  and  Chicago  note  the  de- 
[275] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

cline  in  the  earlier  enthusiasm  of  the  audiences 
for  the  Allies.  Policemen  who  have  been  watch- 
ing the  crowds  that  surround  the  war  bulletin 
boards  have  informed  the  writer  that  a  clear 
majority  of  the  watchers  are  not  in  sympathy  with 
England.  There  are  few  calls  for  the  erstwhile 
popular  song,  "  Tis  a  long  way  to  Tipperary.' " 
The  German  bazaar  in  the  Seventy-first  Regiment 
Armory,  New  York,  in  two  weeks  cleared 
$325,000,  while  the  Prince  of  Wales  Relief  Fund, 
on  the  American  side,  is  proving  a  complete  fail- 
ure. The  circulation  of  the  new  journal  The 
Fatherland  has  increased,  in  three  months,  from 
30,000  to  120,000.  The  morning  and  evening 
Staats-Zeitung  have  doubled  their  sales.  There 
is  a  notable  increase  in  the  receipts  of  the  Irish- 
American  journals.  And  the  journals  written  in 
English  which  treat  the  German  side  fairly  find 
some  consolation  in  the  improvement  of  their 
circulation  and  advertising  receipts.  Not  an 
Irish-American  newspaper  has  been  found  to 
print  the  war  letters  of  T.  P.  O'Connor,  M.P., 
long  a  favorite  with  this  class  of  readers.  Nu- 
merous college  professors  have  come  out  and,  en- 
courage'd  by  numbers,  are  now  engaged  in  defend- 
ing Germany.  The  Teutonic  publicists  are  in 
[276] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

great  demand  from  ocean  to  ocean.  Our  Irish 
guests  who  oppose  Redmond  continue  to  receive 
a  warm  welcome. 

There  remains  not  the  least  question  that  in 
the  second  month  of  the  year  1915  a  clear  ma- 
jority of  the  American  people,  quietly  or  openly, 
favors  Germany  against  England,  while  feeling 
profoundly  sorry  for  the  state  of  Belgium  and 
France. 

The  reasons  for  this  extraordinary  but  certain 
change  in  American  public  sentiment  is  due  to 
the  following  principal  reasons: 

1.  The  discoveries  that  England  poisoned  the 
German  news  wells. 

2.  The  proof  that  the  stories  of  German  atroci- 
ties are  false. 

3.  The   feeling   that   England   caused   "hard 
times"  by  bottling  up  our  commerce. 

4.  The  evidence  that  the  attempt  to  starve  Ger- 
many, which  failed,  starves  the  United  States. 

5.  Pride  in  the  American  flag  and  national  sor- 
row over  its  humiliation  on  the  ocean. 

6.  The  degrading  spectacle  of  British  warships 
guarding  and  watching  the  entrance  to  American 
harbors. 

7.  The  popular  belief  that  the  products  of 

[277] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

American  farms  and  factory  should  be  held  as 
sacred  on  the  sea  as  on  land. 

8.  That  God  owns  the  ocean — not  England. 

9.  Admiration  on  the  part  of  Americans  for 
pluck,  courage  and  skill ;  they  feel  Germany  is  the 
underdog,  righting  against  heavy  odds. 

10.  Faith  and  confidence  in  the  solid  virtues 
and  patriotism  of  our  neighbors  of  German  blood. 

In  addition,  the  growing  belief  in  the  United 
States  is  that  Germany-Austria  is  steadily  and 
surely  winning  the  war.  The  disastrous  defeats 
of  the  Russians  at  Tannenburg  and  on  the  Vis- 
tula, where  they  lost  80,000  prisoners  alone  to 
the  Germans,  and  the  rapidity  and  sureness  with 
which  the  German  armies  drove  the  Russians  out 
of  Poland,  their  approach  to  Warsaw,  and  their 
wonderful  support  of  the  Austrians,  render  it 
certain  that  Russia  not  only  will  be  utterly  un- 
able to  reach  Berlin,  but  cannot  hope  to  succeed  in 
an  invasion  of  Germany.  The  further  Russia  gets 
away  from  her  base  of  supplies  the  less  her  chances 
of  success.  In  railway  communications  and  com- 
missaries' supplies  the  Russians  are  inferior 
and  unable  to  cope  with  the  matchless  Germans 
in  these  essentials  of  succesful  warfare.  It  was 
Napoleon  who  said  an  army  travels  on  its  belly. 
[278] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

The  superior  preparations,  skill  and  efficiency  of 
the  Germans  offset  the  vast  hordes  of  Russians  ; 
brains,  not  numbers,  will  win.  And  the  Turkish 
menace  in  the  South  creates  a  diversion  of  troops 
and  war  munitions  for  the  benefit  of  Germany. 
The  commerce  of  Russia  is  paralyzed  by  the 
closing  of  the  Baltic  Sea  by  Germany  and  the 
control  of  the  Dardanelles  (the  entrance  to  the 
Black  Sea)  by  Turkey. 

The  American  public  appreciates  that  the  war 
dispatches  dated  Petrograd  are  mostly  inventions 
or  gross  exaggerations  and  sent  out  to  bolster  up 
the  cause  of  the  Allies.  Again  and  again  the 
communications  dated  Paris  have  been  found  to 
contain  false  news  of  victories  and  to  give  scarcely 
any  reference  to  the  failure  of  the  French  armies 
to  make  any  notable  advance  in  three  months. 
The  victory  of  the  German  army  at  the  battle 
of  Soissons  is  an  exploit  worthy  to  be  compared 
in  military  importance  with  the  battle  of  Fair 
Oaks  in  the  American  Civil  War.  London  has 
belittled  the  magnitude  of  this  great  achievement 
of  General  Von  Kluck  and  his  seasoned  troops  led 
by  the  Bavarians.  The  news,  direct  from  Lon- 
don, is  as  unreliable  as  that  reported  daily  from 
Petrograd  and  Paris,  as  numerous  confirmed 

[279] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

events  have  shown.  The  United  States  military 
experts  state,  privately  of  course,  that  the  French 
forces  sustained  a  fearful  reverse  at  Soissons  and 
that  the  tide  of  fortune  has  plainly  been  turning 
against  the  Allies  both  in  the  eastern  and  western 
theaters  of  war. 

Contrasted  with  the  inventions  of  London, 
Paris  and  Petrograd,  the  Berlin  military  and 
naval  dispatches  are  models  of  brevity,  clearness 
and  modesty.  The  German  authorities  never  re- 
port a  victory  or  an  advance  until  they  are  abso- 
lutely sure  they  have  won  one.  The  indications 
are  that  Germany  holds  at  least  three  prisoners 
for  every  one  captured  by  the  Allies.  Should  this 
average  be  maintained  for  a  considerable  time, 
there  would  be  little  doubt  that  the  successful  ter- 
mination of  the  war  will  be  with  Germany- 
Austria. 

When  Lord  Kitchener  brings  up  his  million  raw 
recruits  they  will  be  confronted  by  seasoned  vet- 
erans of  a  hundred  battlefields  and  a  soldiery  who 
have  slept  all  winter  in  trenches.  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  said  that  he  preferred  one  regiment  of 
troops  who  had  passed  a  winter  in  the  field  to 
three  regiments  of  inexperienced  conscripts. 

Observing  Americans  are  contrasting  the  soli- 
[280] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

darity,  harmony  and  common  purpose  of  the 
people  of  Germany  with  the  divided  counsels,  re- 
bellions and  mutinies  which  are  observed  in  the 
British  Empire.  All  Germans,  whether  in  Ger- 
many or  America,  believe  firmly  in  the  justice  of 
the  German  cause.  In  England  several  of  the 
leading  members  of  the  Cabinet  resigned  rather 
than  endorse  England's  unjust  declaration  of 
war  on  Germany.  The  most  long-standing  friend 
of  the  United  States  in  English  public  life  is 
John  Morley,  the  biographer  of  Gladstone.  He 
withdrew  from  the  British  Government  along 
with  Secretary  Trevelyan  and  John  Burns,  the 
labor  member  from  Battersea,  London,  who  re- 
signed as  Minister  of  Public  Works,  giving  up  a 
salary  of  $25,000  per  annum.  Notable  protests 
were  made  by  Keir  Hardie,  Ramsay  McDonald 
and  Lawrence  Guinnell,  of  County  Cork,  Ireland, 
members  of  the  British  Parliament.  The  sup- 
pression of  meetings  and  newspapers  continues  in 
Ireland.  The  country,  as  has  been  said,  is  really 
in  a  state  of  martial  law.  Vessels  are  inspected 
carefully  in  all  Irish  ports  lest  they  may  be  found 
running  rifles  and  machine  guns.  Death  is  a 
solemn  and  terrible  event  everywhere,  but  no 
people  take  such  interest  in  the  funerals  of  their 
[281] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

dead  as  the  Irish.  Their  dead  lie  on  the  battle- 
fields, and  the  mothers  cannot  see  their  children 
in  their  coffins.  They  are  not  to  be  buried  in 
the  consecrated  ground  of  Ireland.  The  shibbo- 
leth of  Home  Rule  after  the  war  has  an  empty 
sound  for  broken-hearted  mothers.  The  letters 
from  Michael,  Patrick,  Malachi  or  Dennis  in  the 
trenches  or  hospitals  are  sad  reading.  The  Irish 
have  no  heart  for  this  war  of  aggression,  in  the 
creation  of  which  they  had  no  part,  so  that  many 
of  them  feel  like  mercenaries.  The  Germans  are 
buoyed  up  by  the  constant  thought  that  if  they 
must  perish,  they  die  in  a  war  of  defense  and  to 
save  the  Fatherland. 

There  are  seditions  in  Egypt  that  make  the 
British  hold  on  the  Suez  Canal  insecure.  In 
South  Africa  the  rebellious  Boers  have  united 
with  the  Germans  and  for  four  months  have  been 
able  to  hold  the  field.  Private  letters  from  India 
show  that  the  British  troops  in  that  land  will  be 
required  to  crush  various  insurrections,  and  there 
is  little  likelihood  of  a  very  large  number  of 
Indian  troops  being  sent  to  the  continent.  Re- 
cruiting in  Canada  among  the  Irish  Nationalists 
is  a  complete  failure.  Letters  from  officers  of 
the  principal  Irish  societies  contain  the  interesting 
[282] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

information  that  scarcely  500  Irish  Nationalists 
have  enlisted  from  that  country.  Similar  reports 
are  now  being  verified  and  accepted  as  true  from 
Australia,  Tasmania  and  New  Zealand.  There 
is  an  insurrection  in  Morocco  that  has  put  the 
French  Empire  in  North  Africa  into  grave  peril. 

All  in  all,  the  British  Empire  and  her  French 
and  Russian  allies  are  having  many  troubles  the 
effects  of  which  is  gradually  impressing  Ameri- 
cans. Advices  from  Italy  as  late  as  February, 
1915,  show  that  public  sentiment  is  favorable  to 
Germany,  and  there  is  no  likelihood  of  Italy  being 
drawn  into  the  conflict  to  fight  on  the  side  of  the 
Allies.  If  British  diplomacy  should  prevail  on 
Roumania  to  espouse  their  cause,  that  country 
will  be  offset  by  Bulgaria,  which  is  ready  to  strike. 
Persia  has  been  delivered  to  Russia  by  England 
and  has  revolted: 

The  London  Leader  says: 

Britain  is  now  supposed  to  be  the  champion  of  small 
peoples,  yet  we  have  the  example  of  Persia  before 
our  eyes  to-day.  Persia,  whose  independence  was 
guaranteed  by  Britain  and  who  has  been  swallowed  by 
Russia!  The  neutrality  and  independence  of  Korea 
was  guaranteed  by  Britain,  France  and  Russia,  but 
Korea  was  seized  by  Japan  and  her  Queen  murdered 
by  Japanese  agents.  Morocco  was  divided  between 
[283] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

France  and  Spain  with  the  connivance  of  Britain. 
Britain,  like  every  other  nation,  breaks  her  treaties 
when  convenient  to  herself. 

Russia  is  facing  a  revolution  in  Finland,  there 
is  widespread'  disaffection  in  Russian  Poland,  re- 
volts are  under  way  in  the  Mohammedan  pos- 
sessions of  the  Russian  Empire,  in  Bokhara, 
Turkestan  and  Chiva.  The  oppressed  Jews  are 
opposed  to  the  war.  The  most  sanguinary  battles 
of  the  war  are  being  fought  in  territory  that  has 
large  Jewish  population,  so  the  world  may  see 
the  extermination  of  most  of  the  Jewish  race  in 
Eastern  Europe,  where  the  majority  of  those  un- 
fortunate people  live.  A  movement  has  been 
started  in  Afghanistan,  to  whose  borders  Russia 
is  diverting  troops,  while  the  Turks  have  an  army 
of  600,000  men  assailing  Russia  in  Trans-Cau- 
casia. While  the  Allies  are  numerically  superior, 
they  are  confronted  with  numerous  internal  and 
racial  troubles,  which  have  increased  the  obstacles 
to  their  progress  in  both  the  eastern  and  western 
theatres  of  war.  These  serious  diversions  at  the 
end  of  the  first  act  of  the  world's  tragedy  have 
been  hidden  from  Ireland,  but  the  news  is  grad- 
ually percolating  through.  The  news  has  greatly 
interfered  with  the  recruiting  in  Ireland,  where 
[284] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

conscription  is  threatened.  Many  young  men, 
fearing  a  forced  draft  into  the  army,  are  leaving 
the  country. 

FINALE 

FREEDOM  for  Ireland — an  Irish  Republic — is  by 
no  means  an  idle  or  wild  dream  should  the  war 
terminate  in  favor  of  Germany.  Then  the  dis- 
tribution of  power  in  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa 
would  be  rearranged.  The  maps  of  the  world 
have  been  changed  by  the  outcome  of  wars.  The 
opportunity  for  the  creation  of  the  present  United 
States  of  America  presented  itself  when  England 
was  exhausted  by  a  long  war  with  France.  The 
British  Empire,  like  the  Roman  Empire,  Car- 
thage and  all  world-wide  dominions  must  perish 
in  the  fulness  and  mutability  of  time.  The  old 
myth  of  British  supremacy  passes  away  with  the 
defeat  of  England,  overpopulated,  and  with  vast 
numbers  of  her  ill-fed  families  living  in  single 
rooms  in  crowded  cities.  Liberty  for  Ireland  can 
only  be  won  through  the  triumphs  of  Germany- 
Austria.  Then  and  then  only  will  the  Republic 
of  Ireland  be  a  glorious  reality  and  the  flag  of 
green  and  gold  wave  on  the  seas  and  over  the 
Emerald  Isle. 

God  bless  Germany!    God  save  Ireland! 
[285] 


POSTSCRIPT 


SWAN  SONGS  OF  SUPPRESSED  IRISH 
NATIONALIST  NEWSPAPERS 

The  following  important  articles  appeared  in  the 
last  issues  of  the  suppressed  papers  Sinn  Fein,  The 
Irish  Volunteer,  and  The  Irish  Worker.  In  each 
case  they  are  editorials.  They  were  written  by  men 
who  had  the  menace  of  suppression  before  them,  and 
who,  for  that  reason,  are  anxious  to  give  a  complete 
expression  to  their  view  of  the  situation.  The  three 
writers  are  amongst  the  most  able  and  the  most  re- 
sponsible men  in  Ireland.  They  are : 

ARTHUR  GRIFFITHS,  editor  of  Sinn  Fein  and  its 
predecessor,    The   United  Irishman.    He  has 
the  reputation  of  being  the  most  forcible  and 
the  best  informed  writer  on  the  Irish  Press. 
PROFESSOR  EOIN  MACNEILL,  Professor  of  Early 
Irish  History  in  the  National  University  of 
Ireland    and    Vice-President    of    the    Gaelic 
League.    It  was  owing  to  his  initiative  that  the 
Irish  Volunteers  were  first  started. 
JAMES  CONNOLLY,  the  well-known  Labor  Leader. 
He  is  the  writer  of  a  remarkable   study  in 
Irish  History  "Labor  in  Irish  History." 
The  first  article  appeared  in  the  last  issue  of  Sinn 
Fein,  the  second  in  the  last  issue  of  The  Irish  Volun- 
teer, and  the  third  in  the  last  issue  of   The  Irish 
Worker. 

[289] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

THE  "SINN  FEIN"  ARTICLE 

Even  the  Solicitors'  Apprentices'  Debating  Society 
has  been  pressed  into  the  service  of  the  recruiting 
agents.  Last  week  it  opened  for  the  session,  with  an 
auditorial  address  on  "The  Neutrality  of  Belgium," 
an  appropriate  subject  enough  when  we  have  resigned 
ourselves  to  the  creed  that  the  proper  topics  for  dis- 
cussion among  young  men  in  Ireland  are  extraneous 
to  Ireland.  But  the  traditional  practice  of  inviting 
speakers  of  diverse  views  on  the  Auditor's  thesis  was 
departed  from,  and  the  platform  was  as  thoroughly 
packed  as  if  Sergeant  MacSweeney  superintended  the 
operation.  The  speakers  were  all  carefully  chosen  be- 
cause they  could  be  trusted  to  say  the  right  thing  for 
the  crimps,  viz.,  that  England  was  at  war  because  the 
neutrality  of  Belgium  had  been  violated. 

WHY  ENGLAND  IS  AT  WAR 

Now  England  is  not  at  war  because  the  neutrality 
of  Belgium  has  been  violated.  She  is  at  war  to  destroy 
Germany  in  pursuance  of  her  invariable  and  avowed 
Continental  policy — dating  from  the  days  of  Elizabeth, 
carried  to  its  first  success  by  Cromwell,  and  to  its  ulti- 
mate victory  by  Pitt — that  no  Power  on  the  Continent 
shall  be  permitted  to  become  predominant,  and  that 
when  any  Power  threatens  to  do  so  England  must 
form  a  combination  of  other  Powers  to  crush  it.  The 
combination  of  Europe  against  Louis  XIV,  and 
against  Napoleon  are  the  classic  examples  of  this 
policy.  The  combination  of  France,  Turkey,  and  Sar- 
dinia against  Russia  in  1854  was  its  last  illustration 
[290] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

until  the  present  war.  But  in  every  war  of  England's 
with  this  object  she  advertises  another  reason  as  the 
cause  of  a  war.  She  fought  Louis  XIV  and  Napoleon 
on  the  same  pretexts  of  freedom  and  altruism  she 
puts  forward  to-day. 

THE  MISSION  OF  KING  EDWARD  VII 
England  has  followed  exactly  the  same  method  in 
the  case  of  Kaiser  Wilhelm  she  followed  in  the  case 
of  Napoleon.  She  has  ringed  his  country  round  with 
enemies.  In  1907  we  pointed  out  in  Sinn  Fein  that 
the  "mission"  of  King  Edward,  "the  Peacemaker," 
accompanied  by  Sir  Edward  Grey,  through  Europe 
was  not  to  make  peace,  but  to  create  a  general  Con- 
tinental alliance  against  Germany.  Whether  we  were 
right  when  we  said  the  mission  was  one  of  war  while 
all  the  remainder  of  the  Press  both  here  and  in  Great 
Britain  pretended  or  really  believed  the  mission  of  the 
two  Edwards  to  be  one  of  peace  can  now  be  decided. 
France  fell  easily,  despite  the  fact  that  the  Nation- 
alist French  papers  opposed  the  Entente,  and  pointed 
out  what  was  the  truth,  that  England  designed  to  use 
France  as  a  pawn  in  her  game. 

Russia  saw  her  opportunity  and  seized  it.  Before 
she  came  in  she  exacted  a  price  from  England,  which 
England  reluctantly  paid — the  chief  part  of  that  price 
was  Persia — a  country  England  was  bound  by  her 
honor  to  protect.  Her  honor!  Persia  was  dissected 
alive,  that  Russia  might  aid  England  against  Germany. 

THE   CONGO  ATROCITIES  AGITATION 

An  attempt  was  made  to  drag  Japan,  Belgium  and 
[291] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

the  United  States  into  the  world-alliance.  Japan  came 
in  to  play  her  own  hand  in  the  Pacific.  Belgium,  un- 
der King  Leopold,  wavered.  Then  an  agitation  was 
started  in  England — inspired  by  the  government — 
against  Belgium — the  Congo  Atrocities  agitation. 
King  Leopold,  by  no  means  a  reputable  person  in 
private  life,  but  at  least  as  reputable  as  the  then  King 
of  England,  was  painted  a  monster  of  lust  and  cruelty, 
and  suggestions  were  thrown  out  that  the  Belgians 
owed  it  to  civilization  and  humanity — it  is  always 
civilization  that  stirs  the  heart  of  England  when  she 
prepares  for  war  against  a  rival — to  force  the  dis- 
graceful Leopold  to  abdicate.  His  successor,  an  in- 
finitely better  man  in  private  life,  had  little  of  Leo- 
pold's ability,  and  practically  none  of  his  knowledge 
of  English  statecraft.  As  far  back  as  1912  we  indi- 
cated in  Sinn  Fein  that  Belgium  was  in  the  toils  of 
England.  She  had  collared  King  Albert,  and  per- 
suaded him  that  his  country's  future  lay  with  herself 
and  France. 

THE  FRUSTRATED  ANGLO-AMERICAN  ALLIANCE 

The  effort  to  secure  the  United  States  was  sustained 
and  vigorous.  The  programme  was  to  arrange  an  en- 
tente, which  could  be  forced,  as  in  the  case  of  France, 
into  an  alliance.  The  Irish-Americans  were  the  great 
obstacle  in  the  way.  Home  Rule  was  tried  as  the  bait 
to  neutralize  their  hostility.  Mr.  James  Bryce,  who 
had  been  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,  was  sent  to 
America  for  the  express  purpose  of  neutralizing  if  he 
could  not  gain  over  the  Irish.  He  had  the  influence 
[292] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

of  Messrs.  Dillon,  T.  P.  O'Connor,  and  Redmond  be- 
hind him.  He  was  beaten — hopelessly  beaten — by  an 
anti-Anglo-American  alliance  entente  between  the 
Germans  and  Irish-Americans.  That  is  the  sole  rea- 
son why  the  United  States  has  escaped  being  dragged 
into  the  war. 

THE  TURKISH   REVOLUTIONS 

In  Turkey  England  made  efforts  second  only  to  her 
efforts  in  the  United  States,  and  the  revolution  and 
counter-revolution  which  for  a  few  years  convulsed 
that  country  were  due  to  her  attempt  to  acquire  a  mas- 
tery over  the  policy  of  the  Porte.  In  this  case,  Ger- 
many totally  defeated  her,  owing  largely  to  the  fact 
that  the  strongest  personality  in  Turkey — Enver  Bey 
— knew  both  England  and  Germany  thoroughly,  and 
utterly  distrusted  the  former,  while  he  admired  the 
latter.  The  war  against  Turkey  in  the  Balkans  was 
then  promoted,  but  its  developments  utterly  upset 
British  calculations.  The  end  saw  Turkey  firmly  at- 
tached to  Germany,  while  Bulgaria,  on  whom  England 
had  always  reckoned,  became,  to  an  extent,  anti- 
British. 

THE  DETACHMENT  OF  ITALY 

Toward  Italy  and  Austria  the  policy  of  England 
was  to  detach  them  from  their  ally.  In  the  case  of 
Austria,  there  was  never  any  hope  in  English  state- 
craft to  range  her  among  Germany's  foes,  but  there 
was  a  real  hope  of  keeping  her  away  from  Germany's 
side.  Here  Russian  and  English  diplomacy  clashed. 
Russia  wanted  Austria  in  the  war,  as  her  designs  are 

[293] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

far  more  upon  the  territory  of  that  empire  than  upon 
German.  A  war  against  Germany,  with  Austria  out, 
would  have  kept  Russia  and  her  cat's-paws  out  of  the 
Adriatic  and  /Egean — that  is,  the  Mediterranean — and 
left  a  Great  Power  on  her  flank,  which  Russia  knew 
England  would  utilize  when  the  day  of  the  Anglo- 
Russian  struggle  came.  It  was  with  Austria,  therefore, 
Russia  was  determined  to  be  primarily  at  war,  and 
England  yielded  the  point.  In  the  case  of  Italy,  Eng- 
lish influence  and  the  national  character  made  her  pol- 
icy easily  successful.  Italy  had  been  preserved  from  at- 
tack, and  given  thirty  years  of  peace  in  which  to  de- 
velop herself  by  her  alliance  with  Austria  and  Ger- 
many. When  the  time  came  to  pay  her  debt,  she  re- 
pudiated it.  She  was  the  partner  of  the  Triple  Alliance 
who  gained  everything  by  the  alliance.  When  the 
time  came  for  her  to  act  her  part,  she  discovered  that 
Austria,  with  whom  she  had  allied  herself  for 
thirty  years,  was  extremely  unpopular  with  her  peo- 
ple. Here  England  had  triumphed.  The  Triple  Al- 
liance was  deserted  by  the  partner  who  it  had  relied 
upon  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  Germany  and  Austria 
were  left  to  face  alone  a  military  and  naval  combina- 
tion apparently  invincible  and  irresistible. 


WORKS 

A  pretext — a  pretext  which  represented  England  as 
fighting  the  battle  of  the  oppressed  against  the  oppress- 
[294] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

or — was  necessary,  as  it  is  always  desirable  for  Eng- 
land in  her  wars.  To  defame  those  with  whom  she  is 
engaged  in  war  in  order  to  prevent  any  possibility  of 
sympathy  in  neutral  nations,  which  might  develop  into 
armed  intervention,  is  a  cardinal  point  of  English  war- 
policy.  Thus  when  she  designed  her  attack  upon  the 
Transvaal  Republic,  which  owing  to  its  mineral  riches 
had  become  commercially  and  politically  stronger  in 
South  Africa  than  the  English  colonies  of  the  Cape, 
Natal  and  Rhodesia,  and  therefore  must  be  destroyed, 
she  began  with  an  agitation  against  the  oppression  of 
the  uitlanders,  or  foreign  residents.  The  fact  that 
there  was  no  oppression  of  the  uitlanders  made  no 
difference.  The  present  writer  was  an  uitlander  in 
the  Transvaal  at  the  time,  and  neither  experienced  nor 
even  heard  of  any  uitlander  who  had  experienced  op- 
pression, but  England  had  a  press  and  a  press  agency 
with  which  she  could  speak  every  hour  to  the  remotest 
corners  of  the  world.  The  Boers  had  a  press  whose 
voice,  like  the  voice  of  Ireland,  was  too  feeble  to  be 
heard  outside  the  confines  of  the  Boer  territory.  When 
she  had  invested  herself  with  the  desired  appear- 
ance of  rescuing  the  oppressed  from  the  oppressor, 
she  fell  upon  the  little  republic,  declaring  publicly  to 
Europe  by  the  mouth  of  her  Prime  Minister,  Lord 
Salisbury,  that  "she  sought  no  gold-fields  and  sought 
no  territory,"  and  ravaged  the  Transvaal  and  its  gal- 
lant little  ally,  the  Free  State,  with  fire  and  sword, 
seizing  the  gold-fields  and  the  territory  she  had  pledged 
herself  not  to  seek. 

[295] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

SERVIA  AND  BELGIUM 

Obviously  a  pretext  of  defending  the  oppressor 
from  the  oppressed  could  not  be  found  in  the  case  of 
Servia — a  country  whose  throne  was  reared  on  the 
most  cowardly  regicide  in  modern  history  and  whose 
government,  as  every  politician  in  Europe  knows,  has 
operated  by  private  assassination  against  its  oppo- 
nents. The  murder  of  the  heir  to  the  Crown  of  the 
Austro-Hungarian  Empire  was  the  culmination  of  the 
Servian  policy  of  assassination,  and  if  Austro-Hun- 
gary  had  failed  to  put  it  beyond  the  power  of  Servia 
to  continue  her  dastardly  campaign,  she  would  have 
ceased  to  exist  as  a  Power.  The  pretext  of  "Little 
Servia"  would  have  deceived  no  nation — for  every 
nation  in  Europe  knows  what  Servian  methods  are. 
But  some  pretext  of  weakness  oppressed  by  strength 
had  to  be  found,  and  England  found  it  in  the  case  of 
Belgium — poor  little  Belgium,  whose  neutrality  had 
been  violated.  Belgium  and  Holland  are  little  states 
whose  neutrality  the  Great  Powers  were  supposed  to 
respect.  Obviously,  such  states  must  rely  upon  the 
good  faith  of  these  Powers,  and  leave  their  frontiers 
unguarded,  or  else  they  must  guard  them  impartially. 
Holland  has  done  this.  She  has  fortified  her  country 
indifferently  against  attack  from  any  of  her  neigh- 
bors. Belgium  did  not  do  so.  She  fortified  her  Ger- 
man frontiers,  and  left  her  French  frontier  unfortified, 
and  her  English  frontier — the  sea — exposed,  except 
at  Antwerp,  to  anything  the  British  fleet  might  care  to 
attempt  upon  it. 

[296] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

We  shall  leave  out  of  consideration  this  fact  and 
the  portfolio  "Intervention  Anglais-Belgique,"  which 
was  found  in  the  archives  of  the  Belgian  General  Staff, 
dating  back  as  far  as  1906,  and  examine  from  her  own 
admitted  official  documents  England's  claim  that  she 
entered  this  war  on  Belgium's  behalf.  England  has 
officially  published  her  case  under  the  title  of  "Great 
Britain  and  the  European  Crisis."  In  passing,  our 
Irish  Imperialists  may  note  that,  although  the  official 
description  of  this  kingdom  is  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, the  name  of  Ireland  is  dropped  out  of  the  official 
document  published  by  the  Foreign  Office. 

STORY  OF  CROOKED  BRITISH  DIPLOMACY 

On  July  3Oth  Sir  Edward  Grey  wrote  declining 
neutrality  on  the  basis  of  Germany  respecting  French 
territory  as  distinct  from  French  colonies.  Belgium 
was  mentioned  in  this  dispatch,  but  as  a  minor  con- 
sideration. The  following  day  (dispatch  No.  in) 
Sir  Edward  Grey  telegraphed  to  the  British  Ambas- 
sador in  Berlin  that,  if  France  became  involved,  Eng- 
land would  be  drawn  in,  so  he  (Sir  Edward  Grey) 
had  informed  the  German  Ambassador  in  London. 
Belgium  was  not  even  alluded  to  by  the  British  For- 
eign Minister.  On  the  same  day,  however,  he  ad- 
dressed to  the  French  and  German  governments, 
through  their  Ambassadors,  a  formal  inquiry  as  to 
whether  they  would  respect  the  neutrality  of  Belgium, 
so  long  as  no  other  Power  violated  it.  At  the  same 
time,  he  telegraphed  to  the  British  Minister  at  Brus- 
[297] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

sels  to  inform  the  Belgian  Government  of  his  inquiry 
to  France  and  Germany,  and  to  say,  "I  assume  that 
the  Belgian  Government  will  maintain  to  the  utmost 
of  their  power  this  neutrality,"  and  that  "an  early 
reply  is  desired."  Observe  that  these  three  latter  tele- 
grams were  sent  out  after  Sir  Edward  Grey  had  in- 
formed the  German  Ambassador  that  if,  not  Belgium, 
but  France,  were  involved,  England  would  be  drawn 
in.  Why  had  he  not  raised  the  question  of  Belgium's 
neutrality  then,  on  which  England  now  professes  to 
have  gone  to  war? 

THE  GERMAN  OFFER 

On  the  following  day,  August  1st,  the  German  Am- 
bassador in  London  inquired  (dispatch  123)  whether, 
if  Germany  pledged  herself  not  to  violate  Belgian 
neutrality,  England  would  engage  to  remain  neutral. 
England's  Foreign  Minister  declined  to  give  that  en- 
gagement. "I  did  not  think,"  he  writes,  "that  we 
could  give  a  promise  of  neutrality  on  that  condition 
alone." 

Thus  while  we  have  England  pretending  to-day 
through  her  press,  her  platform,  her  pulpit,  and  her 
Parliament  that  she  went  into  the  war  to  preserve  the 
neutrality  of  Belgium,  we  have  here  the  evidence  of 
her  own  officially  published  dispatches,  refusing  to 
guarantee  Germany  that  she  would  remain  neutral,  if 
Germany  guaranteed  to  respect  Belgian  neutrality ;  and, 
while  she  was  rejecting  the  proposal  of  Germany  to 
leave  Belgium  out  of  it,  her  Minister  at  Brussels  was, 
[298] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

on  the  instructions  of  the  British  Government  (dis- 
patch 115),  urging  Belgium  to  uphold  her  neutrality 
"to  the  utmost  of  its  power,"  i.  e.,  by  opposing  armed 
force  to  Germany. 

Read  side  by  side,  what  a  story  these  dispatches  re- 
veal. Belgium  ignored  in  the  discussion  between  the 
German  Ambassador  and  the  British  Foreign  Minister 
on  the  morning  of  July  3ist.  Belgium  is  telegraphed 
to  in  the  evening  by  the  British  Government  to  "up- 
hold its  neutrality  to  the  utmost  of  its  power."  Ger- 
many refused  the  next  day  a  pledge  from  England 
that  she  will  be  neutral  if  Belgian  neutrality  is  re- 
spected— refused  even  an  engagement  though  Ger- 
many suggests  that  in  addition  to  respecting  Belgian 
neutrality,  French  territorial  integrity  both  at  home 
and  abroad  will  be  respected.  "If  you,"  says  England 
in  effect  to  Germany,  "if  you  guarantee  not  to  attack 
France  through  Belgium,  not  to  use  your  fleet  against 
the  French  Northern  coast,  not  to  impair  French  in- 
tegrity, not  to  seize  French  colonies,  why  then  we  will 
do  what  we  consider  best  for  ourselves.  You  must 
give  us  guarantees — we  will  give  you  no  promise, 
must  keep  our  hands  free"  (dispatch  123). 

BELGIAN  NEUTRALITY  "NOT  A  DECISIVE  FACTOR*' 

The  tragi-comedy  was  really  played  out  in  forty- 
eight  hours.  On  the  day  that  Belgium  was  exhorted  to 
assert  herself  against  Germany  by  force  of  arms,  the 
French  Ambassador  was  informed  by  Sir  Edward 
Grey  that  the  preservation  of  Belgian  neutrality  might 
[299] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

be  an  important  factor,  but  not  a  decisive  factor,  in 
determining  England's  attitude.  This  was  in  the  same 
interview  in  which  Sir  Edward  Grey  thrice  declined 
M.  Cambon's  appeal  definitely  to  inform  Germany  that 
England  would  side  with  France  if  hostilities  broke 
out,  an  assurance  which  M.  Cambon  declared  would 
avert  war.  England  kept,  as  Sir  Edward  Grey 
boasted,  "her  hands  free"  until  war  had  broken  out  be- 
tween Russia  and  France  with  Germany  and  until 
Belgium,  relying  upon  English  aid  that  never  came, 
entered  the  war.  Then  when  they  were  all  in — when 
it  seemed  that  England  had  only  to  throw  in  her 
weight  to  crush  Germany — then  England  entered  the 
war.  And  then  it  was  she  entered  it  on  a  pretext, 
which  we  have  shown  from  her  own  state  papers  to  be 
false — the  preservation  of  Belgian  neutrality — that 
neutrality  she  told  France  was  not  a  decisive  factor — 
that  she  told  Germany  she  would  not  engage  herself  to 
stand  aside  even  though  Germany  guaranteed  it. 

THE  SACRIFICE  OF  BELGIUM 

Belgium  was  sacrificed,  but  not  by  the  Power  that 
knocked  at  its  gate,  and  asked  permission  to  pass 
through,  not  by  the  Power  that,  when  Liege  had  fallen 
to  its  invincible  guns,  wrote  to  the  Belgian  Govern- 
ment in  the  hour  of  victory :  "The  fortress  of  Liege 
has  been  taken  by  assault  after  a  courageous  defence. 
The  German  Government  regrets  that  such  bloody  en- 
counters should  have  occurred.  It  is  only  by  reason  of 
the  military  measures  of  France  that  it  has  been  forced 
[300] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

to  take  the  grave  determination  of  entering  Belgium 
and  the  Belgian  army  has  in  heroic  resistance  against 
great  superiority  maintained  the  honor  of  its  arms  in 
the  most  prilliant  fashion,  and  the  German  Government 
prays  his  Majesty  the  King  and  the  Belgian  Govern- 
ment to  avert  from  Belgium  the  further  horrors  of 
war.  The  German  Government  is  ready  for  any 
agreement  with  Belgium.  Once  more  Germany  offers 
her  solemn  assurance  that  she  has  not  been  actuated 
by  any  intention  to  appropriate  Belgian  territory  and 
that  such  intention  is  far  from  her." 

Belgium  was  sacrificed  by  the  Power  that  urged  her 
into  armed  resistance  to  the  violation  of  her  neutrality, 
while  it  at  the  same  time  was  declaring  to  France  that 
Belgian  neutrality  was  not  a  decisive  factor,  and  de- 
clining the  offer  of  Germany  to  respect  Belgian  neu- 
trality if  England  herself  remained  neutral.  Belgium 
was  sacrificed  by  the  Power  that  impelled  her  to  armed 
resistance  in  the  belief  that  England  and  France  would 
come  to  her  aid  and  drive  the  invader  from  her  soil — 
and  that  left  her  to  bear  the  brunt  of  war  unaided  for 
three  weeks,  while  the  British  navy  swept  German 
commerce  from  the  seas. 

THE  MEPHISTOPHELES  AMONG  NATIONS 

We  are  sorry  for  Belgium — the  dupe  of  a  diplomacy 
that  has  made  puppets  of  far  stronger  and  more  ex- 
perienced Powers.  We  have  never  underestimated 
English  statecraft.  It  is  subtle  and  dextrous  beyond 
the  statecraft  of  France  and  Germany  in  times  of 
[301] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

peace.  The  slow,  steady  coiling  of  the  web  around 
Germany  from  1906;  the  mobilization  of  the  fleet  at 
Spithead  on  pretence  of  a  review  days  before  war  was 
dreamed  of;  the  steady  forcing  of  France  by  ma- 
neuvring  of  Belgium  into  war  without  committing 
England  until  the  anti-German  combination  had  gone 
too  far  to  back  out ;  and  then  the  setting  up  of  the  false 
pretext  that  she  intervened  to  defend  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium — these  things  we  can  admire,  while  we  detest ; 
as  we  may  admire,  while  we  detest,  the  subtlety  of 
Mephistopheles.  And  as  we  note  the  successful  un- 
folding of  her  evil  craft  we  knew  what  England's  first 
act  of  war  would  be — to  shut  off  Germany  from  com- 
munication with  the  neutral  world  until  she  had 
poisoned  its  ear  against  Germany  by  her  picture  of 
Germany  as  a  wanton  tyrant  attacking,  in  breach  of 
faith,  the  integrity  and  independence  of  a  little  coun- 
try, and  had  won  a  world-sympathy  by  depicting  her- 
self as  the  peace-desirous  Power  roused  to  war  by  her 
indignation  and  her  honor. 

We  knew  the  first  act  of  war  on  England's  part 
would  be  to  cut  the  German  cable.  And  that  was  what 
England  did.  Thus  for  two  weeks  her  powerful  press 
and  the  press  of  half  the  world  which  consciously  and 
sub-consciously  is  under  its  thrall,  echoed  her  charges 
against  Germany  and  the  Germans  until  half  the  world 
almost  believed  that  the  people,  who  in  government, 
science,  industry,  and  education  surpass  all  other  peo- 
ple, and  who  in  art  and  literature  are  equal  to  any 
other,  were  really  savages  whose  nature  and  whose 
[302] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

acts  called  for  their  extirpation  from  this  world  and 
their  eternal  punishment  in  the  next. 

WHEN  PRO-GERMAN  IS  A  TITLE  OF  HONOR  FOR  AN 
IRISHMAN 

Sinn  Fein  has  ever  been  and  ever  will  be  pro- 
Irish  and  pro-nothing  else.  While  Irishmen  have  a 
country  denied  its  national,  its  political,  and  its  eco- 
nomic liberties,  no  other  nation's  right  or  wrongs  can 
have  claim  to  their  exertions.  But  if  to  defend  the 
remnant  of  Irish  manhood  from  being  hurried  to  de- 
struction in  this  war,  planned  by  England,  provoked 
by  England,  and  intended  to  serve  only  England ;  and 
if  to  vindicate  from  the  monstrous  calumnies  that 
Ireland's  centuried  calumniator  and  oppressor  is  pour- 
ing out  upon  a  great  nation  and  a  noble  people,  is 
to  be  a  pro-German,  then  we  accept  the  title  as  one 
of  honor  and  worthy  of  an  Irishman  to  wear. 


"The  Earl  of  Halsbury  said  that  in  deference  to  the 
wishes  of  the  government  he  would  not  press  his  ob- 
jections, but  he  thought  the  proposal  of  this  bill  was 
the  most  unconstitutional  thing  that  had  ever  hap- 
pened." 

The  foregoing  sentence  is  from  a  report  of  a  debate 

in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  "Defence  of  the  Realm 

Consolidation  Act,"  on  Friday,  November  27th.    This 

precious  act  gives  the  military  authorities  power  to  ar- 

[303] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

rest  civilians  and  try  them  by  courts-martial,  sets 
aside  all  the  ordinary  safeguards  of  civil  liberty,  and 
empowers  these  courts-martial  to  inflict  the  death  pen- 
alty or  any  lesser  sentence.  In  other  words,  and 
plainer  language,  it  establishes  Martial  Law  as  the  law 
of  the  land,  and  places  the  lives  and  liberties  of  all  in 
the  power  of  a  military  unaccustomed  to  the  restraints 
of  civilized  courts  or  justice,  and  ignorant  of  the  laws 
of  evidence. 

A  German,  a  French,  an  Italian,  or  an  Austrian 
Government  would  have  openly  and  honorably  sought 
to  attain  those  ends  by  a  declaration  of  Martial  Law ; 
the  hypocritical  and  cowardly  gang  of  assassins  who 
control  the  government  of  the  British  Empire  seek  to 
achieve  the  same  objects  by  clandestinely  and  treacher- 
ously destroying  civil  liberties  whilst  professing  a  de- 
sire to  safeguard  and  protect  them.  This  is  but  a 
fitting  culmination  to  all  the  anti-democratic  and  liber- 
ty-hating diplomacy  which  brought  about  this  war,  and 
now  seeks  to  destroy  every  agency  which  would  help 
to  unmask  its  injurious  conspiracy  against  mankind, 
or  tell  the  truth  about  the  terrors  that  accompany  it. 
As  a  result  of  this  act  there  is  no  longer  liberty  in  Ire- 
land— liberty  of  speech,  liberty  of  associations,  liberty 
of  the  press,  liberty  of  the  subject  are  all  gone.  No 
longer  may  a  man  or  woman  demand  to  be  tried  by  his 
or  her  peers  in  an  open  court  room,  before  their  eyes 
and  hearing  of  his  or  her  fellows.  At  any  time  any 
man  or  woman  may  be  arrested,  day  or  night,  and 
dragged  off  in  secret,  to  be  tried  in  secret,  and  con- 

[304] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

demned  and  assassinated  in  secret  by  the  hired  assas- 
sins of  the  British  Empire. 

Aye,  there  is  no  break  in  the  continuity  of  the 
methods  of  British  Imperial  Rule  in  Ireland.  Dublin 
Castle  is  always  Dublin  Castle,  the  same  at  all  times, 
loathesome,  lying,  hypocitical,  MURDEROUS. 

Of  course  we  have  the  word  of  this  government 
that  no  death  sentences  will  be  carried  out  until  Par- 
liament meets,  and  of  course  we  all  know  what  the 
word  of  the  government  is  worth.  Belgium  knows  it 
now,  knows  that  this  government  pledged  its  honor 
to  maintain  Belgian  neutrality,  and  then  manoeuvred 
to  leave  Belgium  irrevocably  committed  to  sink  or 
swim  with  one  side  in  this  struggle  in  which  she  was 
supposed  to  remain  neutral.  Ireland  knows  it,  knows 
that  the  Liberal  Government  pledged  its  word  to  give 
Home  Rule  to  all  Ireland,  then  pledged  its  word  to 
Carson  not  to  force  Home  Rule  upon  all  Ireland, 
pledged  its  words  to  place  a  representative  of  labor 
upon  the  Commission  into  the  Dublin  Police  Outrages, 
then  deliberately  breaks  its  solemn  'word,  and  ap- 
pointed no  such  representatives;  pledged  its  word  to 
appoint  an  independent  Commission  of  Inquiry  into 
the  Bachelor's  Walk  Massacre,  and  yet  declared  in 
Parliament  beforehand  that  the  said  Commission 
would  exonerate  the  uniformed  murderers  of  peace- 
ful citizens.  Aye,  Ireland  knows  the  value  of  a  gov- 
ernment promise,  as  our  fathers  knew  it  in  the  past! 

But  let  "Messieurs,  the  Assassins,"  beware.  There 
are  in  Ireland  to-day  many  scores  of  thousands  of 

[305] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

earnest  men  neither  committed  to  the  British  Empire 
nor  to  the  cause  of  revolution.  For  the  most  part 
these  are  men  who,  wearied  of  the  chaos  of  Irish 
politics,  gave  a  grudging  adhesion  to  the  parliamentary 
attempt  to  secure  some  form  of  Home  Rule  as  an 
organized  legal  expression  of  Irish  nationhood.  Loy- 
alty to  the  party  entrusted  with  that  task  has  kept  these 
men  silent  and  inactive  even  whilst  that  party  was  be- 
traying their  trust  and  besmirching  their  ideals.  Al- 
ways the  hope  persisted  that  eventually  Home  Rule 
would  come,  and  then  these  traitors  would  be  punished 
by  an  outraged  people.  But  if  the  British  Government 
once  more  throws  off  the  mask  of  constitutionalism 
and  launches  its  weapons  of  repression  against  those 
who  dare  to  differ  with  it,  if  once  more  it  sets  in  mo- 
tion its  jails,  its  courts-martial,  its  scaffolds,  then  the 
last  tie  that  binds  those  men  to  the  official  Home  Rule 
gang  will  snap.  On  that  day  we  will  see  once  again 
all  the  best  and  brightest  in  Ireland  definitely  arraying 
itself  on  the  side  of  revolution,  fully  realizing  that 
freedom  and  the  British  Empire  cannot  co-exist  in 
this  country. 

The  constitutional  mask,  the  simulacrum  of  civil 
liberty  still  paralyzes  the  activities  and  holds  the  hand 
of  many  a  true  Irish  patriot,  as  the  boasted  Freedom 
of  Contract  of  the  Wage-system  still  hides  from  many 
a  worker  the  reality  of  his  slavery.  But  once  let  the 
government  drop  that  mask,  or  abandon  that  pretence 
of  civil  liberty,  and  then  the  result  will  see  such  a  res- 
urrection of  Irish  revolutionary  spirit  such  as  has  not 
been  seen  for  generations. 

[306] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

A  resurrection !  Aye,  out  of  the  grave  of  the  first 
Irish  man  or  woman  murdered  for  protesting  against 
Ireland's  participation  in  this  thrice-accursed  war  there 
will  arise  anew  the  Spirit  of  Irish  Revolution. 

"The  graves  of  those  murdered  for 
Freedom  bear  seed  for  Freedom 
Which  the  winds  carry  afar  and  re-sow." 

Yes,  my  lords  and  gentlemen,  our  cards  are  all  on 
the  table!  If  you  leave  us  at  liberty  we  will  kill  your 
recruiting,  save  our  poor  boys  from  your  slaughter- 
house, and  blast  your  hopes  of  empire.  If  you  strike 
at,  imprison,  or  kill  us,  out  of  our  prisons  or  graves 
we  will  still  evoke  a  spirit  that  will  thwart  you,  and, 
mayhap,  raise  a  force  that  will  destroy  you. 

We  defy  you !    Do  your  worst ! 

Whether  this  death  sentence  upon  Irish  prisoners  of 
these  new  courts-martial  will  or  will  not  be  carried 
out  will  depend,  not  upon  the  plighted  honor  or  sol- 
emn assurances  of  Cabinet  Ministers  already  fore- 
sworn and  discredited  even  in  their  own  country,  nor 
yet  upon  any  action  of  the  degenerate  Irish  members 
of  Parliament  who  sat  still  and  helped  to  destroy  the 
constitutional  rights  of  which  they  prate  so  loudly; 
nor  yet  upon  the  British  Labor  members  who,  like  all 
apostates,  are  readiest  to  stab  and  destroy  all  those 
who  remain  true  to  that  ideal  of  democratic  freedom 
they  have  deserted  and  dishonored.  No,  the  question 
of  life  and  death  will  depend  solely  upon  the  temper 
of  the  people  of  Ireland.  If  they  remain  dumb,  nerve- 
[307] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

less,  lacking  in  intrepidity,  quivering  too  mutely  in  the 
leash  laid  upon  them  by  the  apostles  of  "caution  and 
restraint,"  then  the  blow  will  fall  in  increasing  severity 
and  ferocity,  arrest  will  follow  arrest,  blow  will  follow 
blow,  and  sentences  will  increase  in  savagery  in  exact 
proportion  to  the  tameness  of  the  Irish  people,  until  at 
last  the  death  penalty  will  once  more  strike  down  those 
who  embody  the  rebellious  people  of  the  Irish  race. 
Oh,  it  is  all  well  planned.  Their  fathers  in  Hell 
could  not  have  planned  it  better! 


THE 

"Sas  a  dheanta  chuimhuigh  air."  Those  who  are 
capable  of  a  sharp  curve  are  capable  of  any  amount 
of  sharp  curves.  It  comes  easier  by  practice.  Men 
who  are  not  expert  in  the  sharp  curve  may  after  all  be 
just  as  "safe  hands"  as  any.  Our  line  is  a  straight 
line.  We  mean  to  go  on  with  organizing,  training, 
instructing,  and  arming,  until  the  whole  manhood  of 
the  Irish  nation  is  no  longer  at  the  mercy  of  the 
plotters  of  unconstitutional  violence  at  the  Carlton 
Club,  the  Kildare  Street  Club,  or  the  Curragh  Camp. 
We  are  not  in  a  hurry.  We  have  never  promised  that 
this  year  of  grace  and  other  things,  1914,  would  be 
the  Home  Rule  Year.  For  my  own  part,  long  before 
trouble  was  forced  upon  us,  instead  of  promising  rash 
things,  I  have  told  Irish  Volunteers  and  those  whom 
I  asked  to  become  Irish  Volunteers  that  they  had  to 
build  up  from  the  foundations,  and  that  they  ought  to 
[308] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

be  well  satisfied  if  they  succeeded  in  building  some- 
thing solid  and  invincible  within  three  years,  or  ten 
years,  or  even  twenty  years.  The  man  that  cannot 
face  whatever  length  of  time  is  necessary  for  sure  and 
steady  constructive  work  is  no  man  for  Ireland.  We 
have  to  plant  a  hardy  tree,  not  a  hothouse  ornament 
to  be  cut  down  by  the  first  frost. 

***** 

The  imperial  crisis  has  blotted  out  the  boundaries 
of  English  parties.  Here  is  an  official  announcement : 
"Mr.  Balfour,  Mr.  Churchill,  the  Marquis  of  Crewe, 
Sir  Edward  Grey,  and  Mr.  Lloyd  George  joined  the 
Premier  at  10  Downing  Street  yesterday  (Dec.  i6th). 
They  constituted  themselves  a  sub-committee  of  the 
Committee  of  Imperial  Defence.  Mr.  Churchill  left 
the  Admiralty,  but  the  other  Ministers  remained  in 
conference.  Mr.  Balfour,  Sir  Edward  Grey,  and  the 
Marquis  of  Crewe,  together  with  a  general  officer 
from  the  War  Office,  left  together."  Following  this, 
we  read  a  statement  in  the  English  press  to  the  effect 
that  a  coalition  government  is  in  contemplation;  that 
is,  a  Ministry  composed  of  Liberals  and  Unionists. 
***** 

The  Irish  people  will  be  curious  to  know  how  their 
interests  will  be  looked  after.  Mr.  Balfour  is  evi- 
dently recovering  his  position  as  real,  if  not  acknowl- 
edged leader  of  the  Unionist  Party.  More  than  that, 
the  Imperial  crisis  has  given  him  a  position  of  virtual 
power  with  the  existing  administration,  and  that  posi- 
tion may  at  any  time  obtain  formal  and  official  recog- 
[309] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

nition.  The  "Sub-Committee  of  Imperial  Defence"  is 
no  sub-committee.  Sub-committees  do  not  announce 
that  they  have  "constituted  themselves."  This  partic- 
ular committee  may  be  able  to  exercise  even  greater 
powers  than  the  Cabinet.  The  London  Times,  in  a 
recent  editorial,  stated  bluntly  that  Ireland  is  now  un- 
der "martial  law."  The  Cabinet  does  not  administer 
martial  law.  It  looks  as  if,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
the  "Home  Rule"  government  has  ceased  to  exist  as 
the  real  government. 

***** 

While  party  lines  are  obliterated  in  England,  and 
while  the  Cabinet  has  obliterated  its  own  lines  of  Irish 
policy,  one  party,  the  Unionist  Party,  has  not  been  in- 
duced by  the  Imperial  crisis  and  the  dictates  of  patriot- 
ism to  obliterate  one  letter  or  line  of  its  hostility  to 
Home  Rule  and  to  Irish  Nationality  in  every  shape 
and  form.  On  the  contrary,  every  responsible  Unionist 
pronouncement  with  regard  to  Ireland  since  the  crisis 
began  has  been  as  hostile  to  the  Irish  national  position 
as  if  there  were  no  war  and  no  crisis.  Certain  "Na- 
tionalist" organs  have  been  so  busy  in  denouncing 
mere  Irishmen,  reviling  "Sinn  Feiners,"  and  demand- 
ing the  head  of  the  Gaelic  League,  that  they  have  none 
of  their  choice  language  to  spare  for  the  attitude  of 
Unionist  leaders  who  are  now  hand  in  glove  with  the 
"Home  Rule"  Ministry  and  may  shortly  be  hand  in 
hand  with  them  and  the  glove  off. 

What  is  Mr.  Balfour's  position?    To  him,  as  far  as 
we  know,  the  Irish  Nationalist  is  still  the  Irish  Enemy. 
[3io] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

He  has  not  receded  one  inch  from  his  support  of  the 
policy  of  unconstitutional  violence  against  Ireland. 
His  last  great  pronouncement  on  Irish  affairs  was  his 
demand  for  the  "clean  cut,"  the  separation  of  all 
Ulster  from  Ireland.  He  has  not  qualified  that  de- 
mand. With  tears  in  his  voice,  he  admitted  that  the 
case  against  Home  Rule  for  three-fourths  of  Ireland 
was  as  good  as  lost,  and  his  colleagues  confessed  that 
the  decisive  factor  in  that  conclusion  was  the  rise  of 
the  "new  complication,"  the  Irish  Volunteers.  All 
the  more  eagerly  Mr.  Balfour  demanded  the  "clean 
cut,"  the  amputation  of  Ulster,  Nationalists  and  all, 
Patrick's  Armagh,  Columba's  Derry,  Down  of  the 
Three  in  one  Grave,  Tyrone  of  the  O'Neills,  all  Ulster 
of  glorious  history,  from  Ireland,  in  duritatem  odii, 
for  the  perpetuation  of  hatred  and  discord.  The  Im- 
perial crisis  has  not  caused  Mr.  Balfour's  patriotism  to 
recant  one  syllable. 

*    *    *     *    * 

If  it  is  patriotism  for  English  statesmen  to  lay 
aside  their  party  differences,  and  for  some  of  them  to 
shelve  their  most  solemn  compacts,  during  an  Imperial 
crisis,  what  are  we  to  say  of  the  patriotism  of  the 
Freeman's  Journal  and  its  adjuncts?  We  are  in  the 
greatest  crisis  of  Irish  affairs  since  the  Famine,  the 
greatest  purely  political  crisis  since  the  Union.  In  this 
crisis,  while  the  anti-Irish  policy  in  its  most  aggravated 
form  still  holds  the  field  unshaken  and  unrepentant, 
some  of  our  patriots  can  find  no  enemy  to  attack  but 
an  Irish  enemy.  The  "Sinn  Feiners,"  who  take  their 
[3H] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

stand  on  an  international  treaty,  the  Renunciation  Act 
of  1783,  and  declare  the  Act  of  Union  to  be  a  viola- 
tion of  that  treaty,  effected  by  fraud  and  force,  never 
accepted  by  the  Irish  nation,  and  therefore  held  to  be 
null  and  void  in  respect  of  moral  obligation — these, 
we  are  told,  and  not  the  unrepentant  anti-Irish  oli- 
garchy of  England,  are  the  enemy.  We  can  remember 
when  it  was  still  a  point  of  honour  with  constitutional 
Nationalists  to  take  the  part  of  the  most  extreme  Na- 
tionalists against  British  statesmen,  and  when  the 
Freeman,  even  the  Freeman,  denounced  Mr.  As- 
quith,  Home  Ruler,  for  "banging  the  prison  door"  on 
Irish  political  "felons." 

*  *     *     *     * 

In  Mr.  Redmond's  Limerick  pronouncement  there 
was  nothing  new.  Certain  features  of  previous  pro- 
nouncements were  absent,  notably,  if  the  report  I  have 
read  is  adequate,  the  denunciation  with  opprobrious 
terms  of  those  who  are  convinced  that  his  attitude  to- 
ward the  Volunteers  has  been  unnecessary,  unwar- 
ranted, and  unfruitful.  He  said  in  Limerick — we 
take  him  as  addressing  Volunteers — that  a  certain 
course  of  conduct  was  dictated  by  honor,  by  justice, 
and  by  policy.  By  honor,  because  of  the  enactment 
of  Home  Rule.  By  justice,  because  of  the  sufferings 
of  Belgium  and  the  French  Cathedrals.  By  policy,  in 
the  hope  of  converting  anti-Irish  prejudice. 

*  *    *    *    * 

On  the  question  of  honor,  I  must  refer  once  more 
to  the  London  Times.  In  an  editorial  of  December  7th, 
the  Times,  probably  bearing  in  mind  a  famous  say- 
[312] 


THE  KING,  THE  KAISER,  AND  IRISH  FREEDOM 

ing  of  Daniel  O'Connell  about  its  praises,  professes  to 
be  anxious  to  help  Mr.  Redmond  by  encouraging  the 
suppression  of  certain  "rags."  The  Times  gives 
the  word  "rags"  as  a  quotation.  The  Times  says, 
in  the  course  of  this  article,  that  Ireland  is  at  present 
under,  not  Home  Rule,  but  Martial  Law,  and  does  not 
even  suggest  that  it  looks  forward  to  Ireland  coming 
at  any  time  under  Home  Rule.  Is  it  ordinary  com- 
mon sense  or  "political  insanity"  to  think  that  the 
obligations  of  honor  will  not  begin  until  what  the 
Times  calls  Martial  Law,  administered  by  an  ex- 
ternal authority,  gives  place  to  Home  Rule  adminis- 
tered by  a  National  authority?  We  have  a  check 
signed  for  Home  Rule,  or,  if  we  have  not  got  it,  it  is 
there  in  the  Check  Book.  Before  the  check  was 
signed  and  left  in  the  Check  Book,  the  drawers  of  the 
check  openly  withdrew  from  the  bank  a  large  part  of 
the  funds  that  were  to  meet  the  check,  and  at  the 
same  time  they  postdated  the  check  to  the  year  "after 
the  war."  Are  we  bound  in  honor  to  honor  that  sort 
of  check  with  prompt  payment? 

***** 

It  is  not  only  that  what  the  Times  calls  Martial 
Law  is  administered  instead  of  Home  Rule,  govern- 
ment according  to  Irish  ideas,  etc.  We  have  the 
authority  of  the  Freeman  for  stating  that  the  partic- 
ular acts  of  administration  commended  by  the 
Times  are  injurious  to  Mr.  Redmond's  position,  and 
therefore  presumably  done  against  his  wish.  What 
obligations  of  honor  are  created  by  this  special  brand 
of  Home  Rule? 

[313] 


"Life  is  too  short  for  reading  inferior  books" — 

MY  UNKNOWN  CHUM 

("AGUECHEEK") 

Foreword  by  HENRY  GARRITY 

"Unquestionably  the  best  book  in  the  English  Language" 

The  World  War  of  1914-15,  adds  greatly  to  the  charm  of 
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function  of  a  book— "TO  FURNISH  INFORMA- 
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READY  MARCH  10th,  1915 

"  Has  the  Stage — or  the  so-called  artistic  tempera- 
ment ever  yet  given  to  any  Man  a  Wife — to  any  child 
Mother— to  either  Child  or  Husband  a  Home?" 

Beautjr  and  Nick 

By  PHILIP  GIBBS 

Frontispiece  in  four  colors  by  John  P.  Campbell 

Every  man  who  loves  or  ever  will  love  a  woman  MUST 
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Philip  Gibbs  is  the  ablest  and  most  venturesome  of  War 
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since  the  time  of  Scott.  We  shall  have  it  dramatized  as  soon 
as  possible. 

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"  It  seems  both  unpatriotic  And  unchivalrous  thai  Mr.  Gifford 
should  describe  the  strife  of  the  story  as  between  an  American 
and  a  German  girl  and  should  place  all  the  odds  of  attractiveness 
and  success  on  the  side  of  the  German  girl!  The  story  is  amus- 
ingly told,  and  is  full  of  <whimsical  and  farcical  incidents  that 
sometimes  cover  serious  intent. ' ' — Boston  Transcript. 


THE  DEMOCRATIC 
RHINE-MAID 

By  FRANKLIN  KENT  GIFFORD 

Author  of  "Aphrodite,"  "The  Bell  Islers,"  "The  Widow  Who  Couldn't 
Shoot,"  etc. 

"The  Democratic  Rhine-Maid,"  by  Franklin  Kent  Gifford, 
is  a  love  story  that  is  different.  A  German  girl  is  its  heroine, 
and  the  American  war  correspondent  who  is  the  hero  is 
something  entirely  new  in  the  line  of  war  correspondents. 
The  author  has  discovered  also  some  new  possibilities  for 
the  wars  of  Cupid  in  the  rivalry  between  his  German  "Rhine- 
Maid"  and  a  charming  American  girl.  The  fraulein  is  a 
baroness  who  owns  a  fine  old  castle  on  the  Rhine.  She  has  a 
sense  of  humor,  a  high  spirit  and  more  Mother  Eve  witchery 
than  it  is  quite  fair  for  any  one  woman  to  possess.  When 
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Rhineway,  like  any  peasant  maid,  it  does  not  take  many 
minutes  for  him  to  know  that  he  has  met  his  fate.  It  would 
be  hard  to  find  a  more  entertaining  novel  than  "The  Demo- 
cratic Rhine-Maid." 

"It  is  an  amusing  romance,  with  its  touch  of  the  farcical 
here  and  there  and  its  many  clever  conversations — all  the 
characters  have  a^  touch  of  vitality,  and  a  certain  humor, 
whimsical  or  ironic,  glimmers  over  each  one." — The  New 
York  Times. 

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FIFTH  EDITION  READY  MARCH  1915 

YOURSELF  and  the  NEIGHBOURS 

By  SEUMAS  MacMANUS 

Illustrated  by  Thomas  Fogarty 

This  new  book,  MacManus's  best  by  far,  is  redolent  of 
Ireland,  its  love  and  laughter,  its  poetry,  pathos  and  romance. 
Himself  saturated  with  Irish  life  and  Irish  lore,  the  author 
has  put  into  these  pages  the  priest  and  the  schoolmaster,  the 
tinker  and  the  tailor,  the  lovable,  the  quaint  and  the  humorous 
Neighbours — all  limned  with  the  pen  of  love.  We  here  wit- 
ness the  courting  and  the  match-making,  the  wedding  and  the 
wake — we  share  the  happiness  of  the  fireside,  the  fun  of  the 
dance,  and  the  frolic  of  the  fair.  It  is  a  book  whose  freshness 
and  joy  fulness  may  lighten  many  a  heavy  heart. 

George  W.  Cable  says  of  this  book:  "I  may  have  read  as  good  Eng- 
lish— not  often,  however.  But,  oh,  when  did  any  one  ever  read  such 
darling  Irish!  MacManus's  is  a  master  pen,  and  a  joy." 

James  Whit  comb  Riley:  "I  read  it  with  avidity,  as  I  read  every  line 
of  MacManus." 

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memory  live  again.  I  like  this  book  immensely." 

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charm." 

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and  Irish  character,  so  charming,  fresh  and  quaintly  humorous,  and 
at  the  same  time  so  pathetically  tender,  that  I  smiled  and  laughed  and 
gulped,  'all  in  one  breath.'  " 

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and  in  diction." 

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more  than  once.  It  is  the  most  delightful  book  of  its  kind  I  ever  read, 
and  it  should  be  in  the  home  of  every  one  of  our  race  the  world  over. 

Mary  Roberts  Rinehart :     "With  interest  and  joy  I  read  it." 

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I  sang  rather  than  read  the  pages.  It  is  a  delightful — yes,  delicious  book." 

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noblest  and  most  beautiful  book  ever  written  about  Ireland." 


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to  the  mystical,  the  tragic,  the  charming  in  Irish  nature." 

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story  tellers  in  the  world." 

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JUST  STORIES 

BY 

GERTRUDE  M.  O'REILLY 


Miss  O'Reilly  came  to  America  from  Ireland  in  1907. 
She  is  now  well  known  as  a  brilliant  lecturer  upon  Irish  art 
and  literature.  "Just  Stories"  is  a  book  that  the  owner  will 
lend  only  if  assured  of  its  return. 

her  lectures  are  Miss  O'Reilly's 
nd 

.  ell 

known  here  and  appreciated  that  a  lengthy  notice  of  her  delightful 
volume  is  not  necessary;  suffice  it  to  say  that  it  breathes  throughout  its 
every  page  the  sweet,  interesting  personality  of  the  fascinating  author." 
— Catholic  Tribune,  St.  Joseph,  Mo. 

"I  have  read  your  book,  and  it  is  certainly  racy  of  the  Irish  soil." 
— RICHARD  SCAN  NELL,  Bishop  of  Omaha. 

"I  have  read  the  volume  of  Irish  stories  with  very  keen  pleasure. 
They  are  as  good  as  good  can  be;  gay.  sad,  amusing,  pathetic,  human! 
I  like  the  stories  themselves;  I  like  the  way  they  are  told.  They  don't 
suggest  'plot,'  but  bits  of  real  life.  I  hope  it  is  not  as  you  say,  '  a  van- 
ishing life.'  Why  should  it  vanish?  .  .  .  The  book  is  charming." 
— AGNES  REPPLIER. 

"Miss  O'Reilly  is  a  natural  story-teller.  She  couldn't  be  dull  if  she 
wished.  On  the  platform  she  has  'a  way  wid  her,'  as  Moira  O'Neill 
says  all  Irish  girls  have,  but  she  is  no  less  engaging  in  print.  She 
makes  the  types  sparkle. 

"In  this  book  of  hers  there  are  just  ten  stories,  and  each  has  a 
charm  of  its  own,  just.  The  story  this  bright  Irishwoman  has  to  tell 
is  always  interesting,  both  for  the  matter  and  the  manner  of  the  telling. 
Citations  would  give  no  adequate  notion  of  the  goodness  of  the  book. 
All  through  the  pages  run  an  air  of  sweetness  as  of  Irish  glens  and 
hill-places  in  springtime."— T.  A.  DALY,  in  Standard  and  Times. 

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"WHAT  IS  SO  RARE  AS  A  STUTTERING  WOMAN?" 

KEYSTONES  OF  THOUGHT 

BY  AUSTIN  O'MALLEY,  M.D.,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

"The  most  difficult  of  all  tasks  is  to  think"— Emerson. 

Do  you  fail  in  clearness  of  thought  and  of  expres- 
sion, especially  in  conversation  ? 

.  Do  you  teach  or  preach— or  lecture  ?    Do  you  write 
or  dictate  ? 

Do  you  want  to  give  straight-to-the-point  advice  to 
your  children,  your  friends,  your  employees  and  YOUR- 

Do  you  as  Host,  Hostess  or  Quest,  want  a  spur  to 
cleverness  of  thought,  wit  and  repartee  ? 

Do  you  want  a  companion  for  the  home,  the  office, 
the  rectory — a  travel  chum,  too— that  will  respond  to 
your  every  mood— serious,  humorous,  wise,  witty? 

Have  you  an  active  or  passive  grouch  against  religion 
—against  the  clergy  (a  now  fashionable  disease  usually 
confined  to  the  middle  aisle)  because  of  "  what  they  say 
and  do  "  and  because  of  "  the  way  they  live"? 

THEN  READ  AND  QUOTE 

"KEYSTONES  OF  THOUGHT" 

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binding,  sjU.OO;  postpaid,  $1.15. 

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Second  Edition  now  ready. 

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SOUT 


JUN  1  5  1994 
EMS  LIBRARY 


A     000  033  039 


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